Rise of the Automobile 1920s-Present Autos vs. Streetcars
The adaptation to the automobile in urban Los Angeles in the turn of the 20th century did not initially come easily. Early drivers had to fight the streetcars for the right to use the city streets. Early roads in downtown Los Angeles were severely narrow and already suffered from an abundance of streetcars and trolleys, so once automobiles began to enter the mix congestion became disastrous. The problem got so bad that in 1920 the City Council tried to remedy the situation by enacting a strict no-parking law. The council was worried that streetcar riders were angry about increased delays from automotive traffic downtown. Instead, the exact opposite happened. The public had become attached to their cars, and felt the automobile was more valuable as it wasn't limited by routes and timetables. [2] |
PCC Streetcar in downtown Los Angeles, circa 1930. Image courtesy of the Metro Transportation Library and Archives. [1]
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The no-parking law ended up creating a major controversy that transcended usual class-boundaries, since both wealthy car owners and working class commuters alike were affected. Public sentiment had grown weary of the traction companies both due to their physical limits and inefficiencies and their seemingly corrupt management, and the new automobile represented a "democratic" transportation option that liberated the new drivers to go wherever they pleased. The resulting widespread protest and economic pressure from LA residents forced the city council to rescind the no-parking law. [2] With the City Council having finally recognized the automobile as a legitimate form of transportation, a solution had to be found for the congestion on the narrow discontinuous and crowded streets of downtown. While the city tried its best to widen streets for automobile traffic, progress was at first extremely slow. Impatient business owners, monopolizing on the fact that more and more people were using their cars for commuting and shopping, began opening new storefronts in decentralized locations away from downtown and closer to the suburbs. However when these shopping centers became popular enough, they would again succumb to automotive traffic congestion. As a result, residents would move farther away and businesses would again attempt to move further from the city center. This resulted in an out of control feedback-loop which caused the Los Angeles sprawl to wildly expand outward. [2]
Arroyo Seco Freeway, circa 1940. [3]
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Birth of the Freeway
By the mid 1920s it was becoming obvious that LA's traffic engineers were fighting a losing battle with motorists. The city would widen a road, only to find upon completing the project that the level of traffic had increased so much that they merely broke even. In 1924, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., Harland Bartholomew, and Charles Henry Cheney wrote the "Major Traffic Street Plan," which recommended the city widen key roads and develop a network of arterial boulevards which would feed into the smaller residential streets. But this plan alone was not enough, and in 1933 the city's new Bureau of Engineering Chief Lloyd Aldrich began advocating for a radical new idea - to build roads which existed only for automobiles (no trolleys, streetcars or pedestrians) and would be wide enough to accommodate anticipated traffic growth years into the future. [3] On November 12, 1933, Los Angeles announced construction of its first freeway on a four miles stretch of Ramona Boulevard between downtown and the southern San Gabriel Valley. The project was built between 1933-1935 and cost $877,000. |
However the freeway initially lacked a center divider, and wracked up a terrible safety record from head on collisions after it opened in 1935. By 1938 the city remedied the problem by installing a reflective guardrail, and the accident rate went down significantly. [3]
With public trust in the new system restored, the city quickly embarked on two new projects: The Cahuenga Pass freeway and the Arroyo Seco freeway. The first section of the Cahuenga Pass freeway opened on June 15, 1940. Built at a cost of $1.5 million (and partially paid for with Public Works Administration funds), the Cahuenga Pass freeway replaced a narrow windy mountain road between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley with a giant superhighway. [3] The first sections of the Arroyo Seco freeway through Highland Park opened a month later, although the full freeway wouldn't be completed for several more years. At a cost of over $6 million, the Arroyo Seco followed the river and linked downtown LA with Pasadena via Highland Park. This latest freeway sported banked curves, no posted speed limit (only signs commanding slower drivers to stay to the right) - and was essentially LA's own little 1940s autoban. [3]
Federal funding for LA's freeway projects dried up in 1943, and the system stagnated for the next four years as neither the state nor local governments had the funds to support new construction. Finally in 1947 California passed the Collier-Burns Highway Act, which imposed a 1.5 cent sales tax on gasoline for new highway construction. [3] Los Angeles finally had the funds necessary to build the vast freeways which would one day transform the landscapes and lifestyles of Southern California - and the rest as they say is history.
With public trust in the new system restored, the city quickly embarked on two new projects: The Cahuenga Pass freeway and the Arroyo Seco freeway. The first section of the Cahuenga Pass freeway opened on June 15, 1940. Built at a cost of $1.5 million (and partially paid for with Public Works Administration funds), the Cahuenga Pass freeway replaced a narrow windy mountain road between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley with a giant superhighway. [3] The first sections of the Arroyo Seco freeway through Highland Park opened a month later, although the full freeway wouldn't be completed for several more years. At a cost of over $6 million, the Arroyo Seco followed the river and linked downtown LA with Pasadena via Highland Park. This latest freeway sported banked curves, no posted speed limit (only signs commanding slower drivers to stay to the right) - and was essentially LA's own little 1940s autoban. [3]
Federal funding for LA's freeway projects dried up in 1943, and the system stagnated for the next four years as neither the state nor local governments had the funds to support new construction. Finally in 1947 California passed the Collier-Burns Highway Act, which imposed a 1.5 cent sales tax on gasoline for new highway construction. [3] Los Angeles finally had the funds necessary to build the vast freeways which would one day transform the landscapes and lifestyles of Southern California - and the rest as they say is history.
References
1. Metro Digital Resources Librarian, "PCC Streetcar in Downtown Los Angeles," Metro Transportation Library and Archive, http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/9271812754/sizes/l/in/set-72157627708572712/ (accessed on July 31, 2013).
2. Scott L. Bottles, Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 15-17.
3. Nathan Masters, "L.A.'s First Freeways," KCET, August 15, 2012, http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/las-first-freeways.html (accessed on July 31, 2013).
2. Scott L. Bottles, Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 15-17.
3. Nathan Masters, "L.A.'s First Freeways," KCET, August 15, 2012, http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/las-first-freeways.html (accessed on July 31, 2013).