The optics of Raleigh doesn’t help, though 
Whether you look at…
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Local government (also see: the Council of No)
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Urban design and civic engagement (Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and even Hillsborough have lots of strong citizen advisory councils etc., and Durham even has a participatory budget system that lets residents vote directly on select projects)
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Culture (Durham has a good story to tell with its history, art etc. -but we’ve talked on several threads [1] [2] about how Raleigh’s lacking in the “convincing narrative” department)
…I’m sure we can come up with counterexamples on this forum, easily. But you gotta admit that the narrative still has some truth to it -and we need to be more intentional about becoming better than that.
Getting back to the thread’s original topic of public transit, if Raleigh really wants to unite the Triangle’s regional agenda and be more progressive… it needs to stop talkin’ the talk, and start walking the walk.
Properly-done exclusive bus lanes, frequent buses etc., and more solid branding/awareness, might apparently be enough for us to beat Los Angeles, for starters.