This app was mentioned in 3 comments, with an average of 1.33 upvotes
A redditor made and posted this app a few months ago. I've used it for real time bus and rail info. It's simple and works.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.remulasce.lametroapp&hl=en
Not to challenge you but where on earth are you living/going that it takes four hours by transit? I hear/see that so often from people, but I've never really experienced it myself. Transit has always been a pleasant choice for me, either because of convenience, lower cost, or speed (the DOT Commuter Express bus actually won on all three counts when I was commuting for school, which would easily be an hour and a half drive at rush hour). Even moreso now with apps like Go LA and Metro Companion (which actually tracks train and bus arrivals in real time, down to the second).
You're right that virtually nothing in the entire region is affordable anymore. It sucks. We need to build more housing, but that's going to take a while even if it started right now. But that's an issue in just about every major city.
Sacramento is cheap. I mean, cheap for us. You can live right downtown for under $1,000 in a studio. And at that same link, you can find actually really nice apartments for under $1,500. And if you live and work downtown, it's so small, you could pretty easily walk or bike it.
People do commute in from San Francisco as well as the closer suburbs like Davis and Woodland. So the 80 and 5 coming into downtown Sac do get congested at rush hour. I lived in Davis and commuted to Sac for a while on the Yolobus commuter bus. It was comfortable and used exclusively by working professionals (which was also true for the commuter bus here in LA) so no weirdos or derelicts, and it was more convenient than driving myself.
I'm a big booster for LA so forgive me for going back to this, but I just noticed in your OP that you said you feel like you've done everything, and there's nothing new. I am from here also and except for my stint away from home in college, I've been here my whole life. For a while I was ready to leave like you are, and even today I'd move for the right job, but I'm not actively looking to move anymore. I feel like LA is getting better every day. It's a struggle to pay the bills sometimes and I'm constantly looking to increase my income so I can live more comfortably, but with all the new transit coming online now, the burgeoning tech industry, the rebirth of downtown and Hollywood, festivals like CicLAvia and NYE in Grand Park--I just feel like there is so much going for LA that wasn't happening five or ten years ago. It's a new city. It's got an energy that I never felt in Sacramento, and an optimist I never see in SF or NY.
But you've gotta live your life. If LA isn't doing it for you, take a year and live some place else and then decide if you want to come back. Sacramento is a place you could do that affordably. I've heard great things about Fort Collins, CO; Austin, TX; and Pittsburgh, PA, but can't speak to any of them personally. I've always had a thing for New York, but I don't harbor any illusions about being able to move and live there affordably.