Tolls do not reduce traffic. Chicago's (and when I say Chicago, I mean it in the same vein that the author uses "LA", a massive metro area) installation of toll systems in my life here have caused the infrastructure to perpetually be under construction for the last 20 years I've been here.
At best, tolls remove large trucks from the roads - which is not the problem in L.A. Mostly though, they just make the situation worse, and more expensive for users that have little alternative.
The solution is the same as it's always been: stop building areas with car travel as the only option. The little things like bus routes dropping off at a stop that has no sidewalks and no legitimate way to cross a street without a mile long detour for a pedestrian are what make buses not work. The same features that funnel cars into shopping centers disregard the human walking element and make it all but impossible to move in this suburban sprawl.
The physical distances people typically go in one of the most beautiful climates in the country, cooped up in a car, makes me also wonder why there isn't more of a push to create safe cycling routes? I ride 11 miles each way to work here in Chicago, all year, and in the winter extremes it can be occasionally miserable, but one thing I don't have much problem with is safety. I have a path or lane almost my entire commute, and other than the 1 mile of the heart of the loop, it's basically stress free. If I had this safety with LA's climate, I would literally become an evangelist for bike commuting.