A look back through our archives provides no shortage of historic photos, documents and other resources telling the story of transportation planning and operation in Southern California.

But sometimes, we come across something very special, though not necessarily related to the Southland.  Something so dated that it in fact becomes timeless.

Today is the anniversary of a remarkable television event:  On this date in 1958, the Disneyland episode “Magic Highway, U.S.A.” first aired.

Since Disney Studios began in Los Angeles and the footage is part of our YouTube channel, this video serves as a local example of “paleo-futurism”: futuristic predictions from the past.

Now rarely seen, this landmark television feature pitched not only the imminent transformation of everyday transportation, but how it would change life as we then knew it — all for the better — as well.

Informally titled “The Road Ahead,” the folks at the Magic Kingdom used animation to paint a picture of futuristic predictions for the coming years thanks to new technologies and more sophisticated roadways.

This was, after all, the year that Americans were first introduced to the Interstate Highway System (officially known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways).

Business conference in automated vehicle

Eisenhower admired the German Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system.

His military background informed his recognition of the importance of key ground transport routes for troops and supplies in case of a national emergency of foreign invasion.

As the country grew in terms of population and confidence following World War II, Americans may have needed every bit of reassurance they could get following the unanticipated October, 1957 launch of Sputnik 1.

The Soviet satellite beat the U.S. to the punch and marked the unofficial start of the “Space Race” with the Soviets as well as various political, military, technological and scientific developments that all played a part in the Cold War.

In any case, the late 1950s were a bonanza in terms of showcasing what could soon be possible in personal mobility.

Multi-colored travel lanes, radiant heat to clear rain and snow, radar screen windshields, giant road builders, atomic-powered tunneling machines and highway escalators are just a few of the innovations outlined in the last 15 minutes of the program.

Relaxing en route to family vacation

While some of the concepts were just pie-in-the-sky ideas for future technology, others proposals would trigger double-takes today, such as criss-crossing our national parks with cantilevered superhighways.

Those watching the video clip above will enjoy seeing personal rapid transit to deliver different members of the family to their desired destinations: “On entering the city the family separates; father to his office, mother and son to the shopping center,” as the automated vehicle splits in two on the screen.

The film was written and produced by Ward Kimball, who was largely responsible for the program’s early Tomorrowland-themed episodes.

It was also a precursor for many of the ideas illustrated in a presentation that Walt Disney made in 1966 outlining plans for Disney World, and his vision for EPCOT in particular.

So how prescient or off-the-wall were these futuristic predictions of the past?

The ambulance of tomorrow

Automated traffic announcements are becoming rather prevalent today.

Satellite navigation and rear-view cameras are standard or optional on almost all automobiles these days.

Bus rapid transit, fairly common around the world 50 years later, look similar to Disney’s proposed freight ways.

But we will likely never see “air conditioned highways,” atomic-powered boring machinery or “sun-powered electro suspension cars.”

As for family vacations, the film proposes that “getting there will be simplified by a punch-card system, where the car is automatically operated and guided to pre-set destinations,” not anticipating radical developments in computing capability.

However, Google is today pushing driverless car technology research — so the automatic destination delivery or that business conference via television in the automated vehicle may yet come to pass.

But as rising oil prices portend the end of the era of cheap energy, a remarkable revolution in transportation is underway.

In Straphanger: Surviving The End Of The Automobile Age, author Taras Grescoe joins the ranks of the world’s straphangers — the growing number of people who rely on public transportation to go about the business of their daily lives.

On a journey that takes him to New York, Moscow, Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Bogota, Phoenix, Portland, Vancouver and Philadelphia, Grescoe gets the inside story on the world’s great transit systems, going beneath the streets to see subway tunnels being dug, boarding state-of-the-art streetcars, and hopping on high-speed trains.

While the entire book is interesting, the lengthy and wide-ranging chapter devoted to transit in Los Angeles really catches the eye.

Here, Grescoe writes extensively about the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, our “tortuous” freeway system, the Bus Riders Union, plans for a Westside Subway Extension, “the trouble with Downtown,” transit-oriented development and more.

Regarding the “Roger Rabbit Theory” as it relates to the demise of the old streetcar system, he recalls the systematic dismantling of the Pacific Electric Railways and Los Angeles Railway, noting that “in real life Los Angeles, it was Judge Doom and his freeway, not Roger Rabbit and the Red Cars, that ultimately triumphed.”

Grescoe recounts the 1940s business-owners campaign for “Rail Rapid Transit — Now!” and the 1963 Alweg Monorail proposal to build a 43-mile system for free, both of which are found in our Archive.

He discusses the six different rail transit plans were placed before the citizens between 1948 and 1980 — all of which failed.

The author wryly notes the irony of emerging from the Hollywood / Vine Metro station in the middle of the Walk Of Fame where his feet cross the star of Ozzie and Harriet — television’s quintessential suburbanites — on his way to inspect an urban transit-oriented development catering to those desiring city life and accessible public transportation.

Grescoe interviews Mayor Villaraigosa and other figures to keep the writing lively and engaging.

Along the way, he uncovers new ideas that will help undo the damage that a century of car-centric planning has done to Los Angeles and other cities around the world.

With a compelling mix of solid historical research and up-to-the-minute reportage, Straphanger envisions a future with convenient, affordable, and sustainable urban transportation — and better city living — for all.

Nearly half of Americans now own a smartphone

In response to the growing need for anytime, anywhere resources, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) has just announced the launch of its “Go Metro Los Angeles” mobile app, now available free in both the Apple App Store (iPhone and iPad) and Android Play.

The Metro Library figures prominently in the News section of the App.  Users will find links to our Los Angeles Transportation Headlines – our daily aggregation of news and information about transit and transportation in Southern California.

They will also be put in touch with our Primary Resources Blog – our platform which gives our collection a voice of its own.  The blog shares the past, present and future of transportation in Los Angeles and features “This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History.”

Finally, the app also features the Library’s Twitter feed, so users can stay up to the minute on the conversation surrounding Los Angeles’ ambitious mobility agenda.

We believe we are the first transportation library in the United States to provide service via a mobile app, continuing our history of early adoption of technology to serve our users and connect with potential users — including mobile access to our library catalog since 2003.

In its first week, thousands of transit users around Los Angeles County have already downloaded the app, and have given it an average 3.9 star rating.

The app features full trip planning capabilities, over 200 downloadable maps, fare charts, service alerts, planned service advisories, and more.  Additional information can be found here.

We invite you to take a look at screenshots for the Library’s News & Information sections as well as our Transportation Headlines, Primary Resources and our Twitter Feed.

In the future, we are looking at developing our own Library app, featuring full catalog access (including our Archive and federated searching capability of external resources), as well as links to all of our social media properties.

Meanwhile, download the app and take us with you when you’re on the go!

So begins a chapter titled “Challenging The Myth Of An Unplanned Los Angeles” in a new book out this week that you’ll definitely want to know about, if not read right away.

Hot on the heels of the American Planning Association‘s first national conference held in Los Angeles since 1986 comes the debut installment in a new annual series from APA Press.

Each year, Planners Press will bring out a new study on a major American city.

Natives, newcomers, and out-of-towners will get insiders’ views of today’s hot-button issues and a new way of seeing the patterns and perils of urban evolution…and the very first installment in this series is Planning Los Angeles, for which we provided research assistance.

Despite Los Angeles’ reputation for spontaneous evolution, a deliberate planning process shapes the way Los Angeles looks and lives.

Editor David C. Sloane has enlisted more than 35 essayists for a lively, richly illustrated view of this vibrant metropolis.

Together they cover the influences and outcomes of planning for a diverse population, regulating land use and providing transportation in a sprawling city, protecting green space, and supporting economic development.

At 325 pages, there is something for everyone interested in local planning, architecture, history, environmental studies, demographics, and Los Angeles in general.

Chapter titles include:

• History of Planning
• Evolving Demographics
• Land-Use and Environmental Policies
• Mobility and Infrastructure
• Parks and Public Space
• Economic Develpoment

While the entire volume is intriguing and attractively packaged, the sections on Transportation in Metropolitan Los Angeles and the 1970 Centers Concept Plan for Los Angeles are of particular interest to us.

(Click to enlarge)

One of our historic Pacific Electric Railway maps graces the pages describing the early sprawl of 1920s Los Angeles which coincided with the region’s early adoption of the automobile for personal use.

This section of the book discusses the slow demise of what was once the largest streetcar system in the world:  Pacific Electric traffic peaked in 1924 and by 1931, revenues were no longer covering operating costs.

The seminal Centers Concept is also worth a detailed look.

When the Los Angeles Department of City Planning recommended a new framework for a general plan, they set in motion the concept of our polycentric region.

It proposed a network of 29 centers with high- and medium-density housing and a suggested total of 48 centers spanning the 77 cities then in existence as well as the unincorporated County of Los Angeles.

Concept Los Angeles Report, 1970 (Click for more information)

More than 60,000 people participated in the planning process focusing on housing density options, spatial structure, a transportation framework and an open space network which have created the form of Los Angeles we know today — the last time the City explicitly suggested a detailed growth and development framework for the entire County.

Los Angeles is the first city to be profiled in this new annual series, and this work covers everything from the watershed 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew report to present-day CicLAvia.

David C. Sloane is a professor and director of undergraduate programs in the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He serves as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association and recently completed his second term as a regional representative on the governing board of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.

California Governor Wilson & SCRTD General Manager Alan Pegg discuss use of Division 5 as the Emergency Operations Center for approximately 4,500 military and police personnel (Click for more info)

This weekend, the local news will be filled with stories about the long-awaited opening of the Metro Expo Line Phase I running from downtown to La Cienega Boulevard.

But another event this week in Los Angeles history is worth noting as well:  the 20th anniversary of the 1992 riots that rocked the city for six consecutive days, and the impact on and reaction from one of our predecessor agencies — the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

The riots were triggered by the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers in the videotaped beating of African-American motorist Rodney King more than a year earlier.

Fifty-three people died during the riots and as many as 2,000 were injured.

While details of the civil unrest will surely be recounted elsewhere, the legacy of the Southern California Rapid Transit District’s crisis management response should be remembered and make all transit employees proud.

In the early hours after the disturbances broke out, transit operators in South Los Angeles were the first to feel the impact.

Rocks, bricks and eggs started flying at their vehicles, but operators kept the buses running until central dispatch pulled them from the streets.

National Guard troops borad one of 106 SCRTD buses used to transport law enforcment and military authorities (Click for more info)

When another transit agency was not able to retrieve its passengers at the El Monte Transit Station, SCRTD rolled out extra buses to take them from El Monte to downtown.

In addition to transit operators serving heroically, employees in other parts of the agency worked wonders in addressing and responding to rapidly developing issues.

Dispatchers rose to the occasion under tremendous pressure.

Division 5 in South Los Angeles was turned into a command post for up to 4,500 military personnel, police officers and firefighters.

Maintenance workers repeatedly fueled 170 fire engines stationed there, along with scores of police cars and motorcycles and National Guard vehicles.

SCRTD’s 200-member police force stood side-by-side on the front lines with Los Angeles City and County law enforcement officials to help reestablish order.

The took 12-hour watches at the District’s facilities in troubled area as well.

The cutback or cancellation of service on 28 bus lines in South Los Angeles impacted SCRTD customer service who handled a daily average of 35,246 phone calls during the riots.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman (right) presents a proclamation of commendation to SCRTD General Manager Pegg (left) and Board President Marvin Holen (center) for providing vital services during the rioting

The District’s five-person News Bureau staff worked six-hour shifts around the clock to provide dozens of interviews which kept television, radio and print journalists apprised of the latest news to in turn inform the public.

At the height of the disturbances, 140 SCRTD buses were helping to transport men and women who were able to enforce curfews and regain control of the affected region.

Calls rolled in from police and military personnel requesting emergency service.

Southern California Rapid Transit General Manager Alan Pegg lauded what he called “a courageous response to the crisis“:

I have never been prouder of the men and women of the Southern California Rapid Transit District than I was during the civil disturbances that wracked Los Angeles beginning the evening of April 29…

It brought home to me in the most graphic manner possible the intense dedication of RTD professionals who worked long hours under the most adverse conditions to provide transit service.

We provided that service not only to patrons in as many neighborhoods as we could reach, but also transported hundreds of police officers, Sheriff’s deputies, National Guardsmen, Marines, Red Cross evacuees and even prisoners.

In his statement to employees, Pegg wrote about two very important issues: the social justice implications of transportation, and the flexibility of buses in a transit system.

He noted that:

As we look back on the civil crisis of 1992, it is well to remember the findings of the McCone Commission following the Watts riots in 1965.

The Commission reported that lack of public transportation before the disturbances had trapped residents in a ghetto, denying them access to public service, jobs and many other necessities of life.

And went on to observe that:

At a time when the County is planning to spend millions of dollars to build fixed rail transportation systems, this example of the importance of maintaining a flexible — and responsive — bus system could not be more striking.

Only buses could have achieved what the RTD managed to accomplish.

Just three months before the civil unrest, SCRTD had to cut bus service by 100,000 hours to stay within budget and was preparing for a second 100,000-hour service cutback a few weeks later in June.

Pegg concluded that:

In light of the emergency the City has just come through — and will contend with for some time to come — continued shrinking of RTD bus service can only create additional hardships for our transit-dependent patrons.

By the third day, President George H.W. Bush had spoken with Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and California Governor Pete Wilson before addressing the nation, denouncing “random terror and lawlessness.”

In addition to Southern California Rapid Transit District suspending all bus service throughout the Los Angeles area, some major freeways were closed down.

Amtrak suspended train service into and out of Los Angeles.

The Federal Aviation Administration shut down Los Angeles International Airport for 6 days, disrupting air travel nationwide.

When all was said and done, scores of government, public and police agencies, from the National Guard to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles Police Department, heaped praise on the District for its employees’ extraordinary performance during the riots.

President George H.W. Bush thanks Los Angeles authorities, including SCRTD transit police, for restoring calm to the city (Click for more info)

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a proclamation lauding the RTD management and employees for their critical help coping with the violence, calling them “the backbone” of the important operation.

At least one transit operations supervisor was back on the job one day after being assaulted and robbed.

Following the disturbances, the District offered crisis counseling to employees and ten days of special shuttle service in South Los Angeles which included 25-cent service along a special route designed to serve five food distribution points in the community.

Several employee testimonials and thank you letters can be found in the May, 1992 issue of Headways, the SCRTD’s employee newsmagazine.

When Los Angeles erupted into its worst violence in decades, the region’s leading transit provider shined brightest — with all aspects of the agency playing their part in restoring calm to the City.

Perhaps Matthew Hunt, Deputy Chief of LAPD, summed it up best when he told the SCRTD Board:

If we could only bottle up what your employees gave to us, and use it across the City, then this would truly be a City of Angels.

So, too, is Earth’s supply of parking spaces.

In some cities, parking lots cover more than one-third of the metropolitan footprint.

It’s official: we have paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

In Rethinking A Lot: The Design And Culture Of Parking, author Eran Ben-Joseph shares a different vision for parking’s future.

Parking lots, he writes, are ripe for transformation.

After all, as he points out, their design and function has not been rethought since the 1950s.

With this book, Ben-Joseph pushes the parking lot into the twenty-first century.

Can’t parking lots be aesthetically pleasing, environmentally and architecturally responsible?  Used for something other than car storage?

Ben-Joseph provides a visual history of this often ignored urban space, introducing us to some of the many alternative and nonparking purposes that parking lots have served — from RV campgrounds to stages for “Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.”

He shows us parking lots that are not concrete wastelands but lushly planted with trees and flowers and beautifully integrated with the rest of the built environment.

With purposeful design, Ben-Joseph argues, parking lots could be significant public places, contributing as much to their communities as great boulevards, parks, or plazas.

For all the acreage they cover, parking lots have received scant attention.  It’s time to change that; it’s time to rethink the lot.

The third week of March, 1937 had been designated “National Transportation Week” and Los Angeles was ready to roll out its new streetcars.

10,000 cheering spectators celebrated the arrival of two Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars at City Hall.

Crowds swarm the unveiling of Los Angeles Railway's new PCC Streetcars, March 1937 (Click to enlarge)

It was an exciting time for California transportation, as the Golden Gate Bridge was set to open in less than two months.

The city scored a publicity coup in getting the biggest little film star in the world to assist with the ceremonies:  Pint-sized child actress Shirley Temple was on hand to help Los Angeles Mayor Frank L. Shaw inaugurate the new PCC streetcars.

When the cars were unveiled on March 22, public reaction was very favorable.  These particular streetcars were initially assigned to Los Angeles Railway‘s Pico Boulevard “P” Line, the system’s busiest.

Crowds at Los Angeles City Hall watch Los Angeles Railway unveiling (Courtesy UCLA Digital Archive, Click to enlarge)

Los Angeles Railways purchased eventually purchased 165 such streetcars over the next 11 years — the largest such order in the world.

As more PCC cars were added to the fleet, other lines were converted to PCC service.

The PCC streetcars’ name comes from the design committee formed in 1929 representing the presidents of various electric street railways.

The Committee was tasked with producing a new type of streetcar that would help fend off competition from buses and automobiles.

The streetcars were known for their streamlined design, smooth acceleration and braking, and noise reduction.

Twenty-six years later to the week, the last of them disappeared from Los Angeles streets forever.

Even though a standard Google search can return thousands or millions of keyword search results, it still can’t drill down into research to highlight pertinent embedded information.

This week, we came across a new report from an unlikely place which sheds light on and important facet of local transportation — the commuting patterns of the Southern California workforce.

This week, the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service has released a new report titled “The Emergence of the “Super Commuter.”

It defines a “super-commuter” as someone who commutes from one metropolitan area to another by car, rail, bus or air and looks at changes in super-commuting between 2002-2009.

While we have all heard anecdotal evidence of those who live in one place and work in another, this study highlights just how pervasive this phenomenon has become.

Super-commuting is not just the practice of the wealthy of powerful.  The changing structure of the workplace, advances in telecommunications, and the global pattern of economic life have made long-distance travel for work increasingly commonplace.

Here in Los Angeles, between 2002 and 2009, the number of super-commuters grew 77%.

Some facts about super-commuting as they relate to Los Angeles:

Los Angeles County ranks #2 among the ten largest U.S. metropolitan workforces by the rate of growth in super-commuters:  +76.7%

The greatest number of super-commuters working in Los Angeles are from the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas

The largest total number of super-commuters to Los Angeles come from San Diego:  78,300 total

The San Jose-to-Los Angeles super-commute is the second largest by rate of growth in sheer numbers:  +7,600 — up 153%

The Sacramento-to-Los Angeles commute is the fastest growing in the state:  +10,400 — +170%

The entire 17-page report is worth reading.

It points out that Texas takes the top prize for super-commuting, in that 13.2% of the workforce in both Houston and Dallas is made up of super-commuters.  The number has tripled during the study period.

We checked and verified that Southwest Airlines currently runs 25 flights a day each way between Houston and Dallas (that’s 50 total!) – serving as a de facto interurban bus route for commuters between these cities which are 240 miles apart.

But super-commuters aren’t necessarily high-priced executives leading a jet-set lifestyle.  They tend to be quite young (less than 29 years old), but older age groups are showing signs of increase:

“The super-commuting population should not be perceived as elite business travelers, but rather more representative of middle-income individuals who may opt for more affordable housing and means of transportation, such as driving or intercity buses.”

These workers typically travel once or twice weekly for work since the workplace is no longer fixed in one location, but rather where the worker is situated.

The report notes that future planning decisions should consider metropolitan regions’ growth due to the increase of super-commuting and resultant inter-connectedness; while “twin cities” of the past typically sat 40 miles apart, the new “twin cities” stretch 100-200 miles away from one another, with ever-growing inter-commutes.

Plenty of transportation research regarding Southern California is produced right here in Los Angeles, but we occasionally find something like this report which is very relevant from afar — and we’re happy to share it with our community.

And a sidenote to consider:  What is the opposite of a “super-commuter?”

Mitchell L. Moss, the primary author of the report, commutes a grand total of three blocks from home — and walks to work.

On this date in 1972, the Southern California Rapid Transit District took delivery of a prototype steam turbine-powered bus for a year-long demonstration project.

SCRTD joined transit agencies in San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego in testing the feasibility of using external combustion engines, the most familiar of which is the steam engine — technically known as the Rankine cycle engine.

Steam-propelled road vehicles dated back to a French tractor in the 1760s, and steam buses debuted in London in 1919 and in Detroit in the 1920s.

Here at home, the California Legislature had been addressing motor vehicle air pollution since at least 1959.

It determined in 1967-68 that state and federal agencies’ findings regarding alternatives to the traditional internal combustion engine warranted further investigation regarding application to transit.

The State Assembly decided to sponsor a demonstration project which evaluated the technical feasibility and public acceptance of external-combustion engines as low-emission alternatives to contemporary city buses.

The project was funded by UMTA, the Urban Mass Transit Association (the predecessor to the Federal Transit Association), and was the first federally-funded demonstration project related to alternative-fuel transit buses.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley inspects engine bay of SCRTD steam bus, August 20, 1972 (Click to enlarge)

In 1970, three different contractors began engineering systems for three different transit agencies in California.

William M. Brobeck & Associates of Berkeley was paired with nearby Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) headquarted in Oakland, Lear Motors Corporation of Reno, NV was matched with San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni), and Steam Power Systems of San Diego partnered with the Southern California Rapid Transit District in Los Angeles.

The California Assembly Office of Research provided overall direction to the three-agency project, assisted by two systems management firms.

They participated in two high profile demonstrations.

The Brobeck-AC Transit team was shown off to U.S. Department of Transportation officials, members of Congress and guests in Washington D.C.

On April 26, 1972, all three steam buses were demonstrated before members of the California Legislature in Sacramento.

A Steam Bus documentary film was recently discovered by Metro Transportation Library staff in its Archive.

It describes the project and shows footage from the project’s demonstration before Congress and transportation officials, and covers just how the standard buses were retrofitted for a lightweight steam engine system.

The Library has preserved the only known copy of this film in existence:

(Part II of the film can be found below).

Overall, the Steam Bus Project resulted in numerous findings regarding the use of Rankine cycle engines for public transit buses.

Acceleration, top speed and hill climbing were equal to or exceeded road performance of buses powered by six-cylinder diesel engines.

Tests conducted by the California Air Resources Board showed steam buses to be well below the 1975 California emission standards for heavy duty vehicles.

The California Highway Patrol reported that the quietest steam bus was 2.5 to 10 decibels below the quietest diesel buses in drive-by tests and 6 to 14 decibels below in curb-side tests, while interior sound levels were similar to or higher than diesels.

Conventional driver controls were used on the steam buses, minimizing special driver training.

And while these experimental vehicles also matched up well against diesel buses in the areas of revenue service (e.g. comfort, rider acceptance), they showed promise in their potential for further fuel consumption improvement and potential for emissions improvement.

In light of these glowing reviews regarding steam buses overall, what happened after the demonstration period was over?

Unfortunately, Los Angeles encountered more than its fair share of problems with the Steam Bus Project.

The California Steam Bus Project Final Report reports the Southern California Rapid Transit District experience as follows:

During the first week of public service, the SCRTD steam bus encountered numerous difficulties.

Its first two days of attempted public service on September 5 and 6 were aborted, because a bolt sheared on the combustor air fan assembly and a gear mechanism in the oil pump failed.

On September 7, the bus entered public service, but it completed only a one-way trip of 7.3 miles because a pulley slipped which prevented the fan from turning inside the boiler.

On September 8, the bus was withdrawn from public service when a boiler leak was detected; however, the bus traveled 86 miles on September 11 during performance testing until the boiler leak deteriorated.

After the bus was towed to San Diego and the repaired boiler was installed, the bus returned to Los Angeles on September 28 and re-entered public service on September 29, operating on Wilshire Boulevard.

It completed a successful 15-mile round trip with air conditioning operational and favorable performance, except for a loose battery terminal which caused a 27-minute delay.

The bus thereby completed its second and last day of public service because vendor and fleet operator contracts expired on September 30.

In 5.5 months since March, this bus logged 1,007 miles.

Ultimately, the Los Angeles Steam Bus from its San Diego-based manufacturer was in service for only two days, whereas the other test cities witnessed greater success.

Still, the California State Legislature’s Assembly Office of Research concluded that the Steam Bus Project successfully completed its goals.

Extensive surveys and measurements of community attitudes were conducted.

The steam propulsion systems were the first alternate power systems to be visibly supported by the public sector.

The participation of both public and private entities at an early date was viewed as very beneficial.

The Office went on to make several specific recommendations regarding the adoption of Rankine cycle engines.

It urged the exploration of an application for heavy duty vehicles in a research and development program including design engineering and bench testing rather than studies and demonstrations, including funding of at least $20 million over a four-year period.

The California Steam Bus Project Final Report contains many more details about this pivotal moment in California’s alternative-fuel transit vehicle history, as do other reports in our online full-text access document collection.

The entire project was further reviewed in detail in a paper presented at the International Automotive Engineering Congress held in Detroit in 1973.

In one search, this portal allows users to quickly find all available papers, visual aids, and recordings by session, presentation, author, subject area, and more.

If you attended this year’s TRB meeting or are employed by a sponsoring organization, this resource is definitely something to know about.

All employees of Year-Round TRB Sponsors and TRB 2012 and 2011 Annual Meeting Patrons, as well as 2012 Annual Meeting attendee registrants may access this content in the TRB AMOnline portal at no additional charge.

Employees of TRB Sponsors and Annual Meeting Patrons must create an account using their work email address in order to receive complimentary access.

Annual Meeting attendee registrants must have their Annual Meeting 6-digit confirmation number to login to this portal.

TRB Sponsors include all state departments of transportation, many federal agencies, and several non-profit organizations that financially contribute to TRB’s Core Programs.

In addition to the current 4,500+ papers, TRB Annual Meeting Online will include both the 2012 and 2011 Annual Meeting slides and posters of the more than 7,000 program presentations, and videos of more than 80 high-profile sessions.

“But wait, there’s more!” 

In addition to this powerful tool, TRB offers many more products that keep you up to date on transportation research and news.

The TRB Transportation Research E-Newsletter is a free weekly electronic service highlighting selected activities at the federal and state levels, as well as within the academic and international transportation communities.

More than 40,000 people around the world receive this newsletter, and subscription is free to anyone.

You can even customize it for your own interests and needs by selecting which transportation modes and functions for which you wish to stay informed.

And of course, TRB supports TRID, the Transport Research International Documentation database.

TRID is the world’s largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource for transportation research. 

It provides access to nearly 1 million records of transportation research from around the world — for free.

Nearly 500 serials titles are indexed in TRID and more than 64,000 of the records are full-text documents.

A recorded webinar demonstrating all of TRID’s search functions and options can be found here.

How does one keep up with the tidal wave of transportation research available? 

TRB’s extensive list of RSS Feeds is definitely worth checking out.

If you’re working in a particular modality or functional area of transportation, subscribe to that topic to have everything relevant delivered right to your inbox or RSS reader.