The December 5, 1921 issue of the Los Angeles Railway employee newsmagazine posed the question: “How would you like to be an information man?” An article titled “Information Men Help L.A., They’ll Tell The World!” appeared in Two Bells. Ninety…
Category: L.A. Transit & Transportation History
L.A. Transit & Transportation History
Our “Grand Concourse”: Historic Images Of Wilshire Boulevard’s Double-Decker Buses & Other Forgotten History
We periodically highlight “Resources To Know” which lead you to important information sources for research, as well as the core collection of classic titles in the study of Los Angeles transit and transportation history. One indisputable work is Kevin Roderick’s Wilshire…
But Have You Seen This One?: Celebrating The Lesser-Known Historic Transit Photos Of Los Angeles
We are celebrating another achievement today: our Flickr online photo gallery has clocked 1.5 million views after just three years since we began offering up our digital images to the public. It was exactly nine months ago that we celebrated hitting the 1,000,000 mark. On…
148 Bike Paths, Trails, Lanes & Shared Routes: The 1975 Los Angeles County Bikeways Plan
This month, the County of Los Angeles released it’s long-awaited Bicycle Master Plan (214p. PDF), along with extensive technical appendices (195p.) This comprehensive approach to accomodating bicycle transportation throughout the County led us to dust off a very early predecessor.…
50 Years Ago Today: Passenger Projections & Financial Feasibility Report For An LAX Monorail Project
Whether considered for alignment following the Los Angeles River, or connecting the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach, Los Angeles’ historic monorail proposals each have their own fascinating story. Fifty years ago today, transportation consultant Arthur C. Jenkins submitted his Preliminary Report On A…
19 Streetcar Models From Los Angeles Railway: Rarely Seen 1940s Photography And Construction Specifications
Archives are anything but static warehouses of historic resources — the are dynamic, organic things. New items are added, while the collection is sometimes reorganized to maximize research potential. And sometimes, you come across something that may have been there all…
Hollywood Bowl Transit, Part II: So What Did Those People Mover & Elevated Moving Sidewalk Proposals Say?
Last week, we took a look at one of Los Angeles’ proposed “future stations of the past”: the history behind the never-realized plans for a Metro Red Line station at the Hollywood Bowl. As we noted, once the station idea…
Future Stations Of The Past: Whatever Happened To Early Plans For A Metro Rail Stop At The Hollywood Bowl?
After exploring the fate of transit stations previously planned for Wilshire & La Brea and a downtown “Metroport,” we now turn our attention to early designs for a Red Line station next to the Hollywood Bowl. With various aspects of…
Movin’ On Up To Incomplete Streets: “Ultimate Traffic Relief” Through The 1946 Elevated Sidewalks Proposal For Los Angeles
How do you solve traffic congestion downtown? By removing pedestrians, of course! In our never-ending quest to collect, organize and provide access to Los Angeles’ historic traffic proposals, we have repeatedly run into some eye-popping proposals worthy of a…
Streetcar In The Sea Update: More About The 1950s “Transit Reefs” Of Los Angeles
Back in May, we wrote about old Los Angeles Transit Lines streetcars being dumped off the coast of Redondo Beach to create artificial reefs. That post was inspired by photo essays in the New York Times and other publications published…