January 5: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

1924:  Los Angeles Motor Bus Company begins bus service to Griffith Park.

The buses run from 1st Street and Vermont Avenue north on Vermont  to Los Feliz Boulevard and north on Park Road (now part of Vermont) to the Field House for a distance of 6.6 miles.  Los Angeles Motor Bus Company is a jointly-held company of Los Angeles Railway (even numbered buses) and the Pacific Electric Railway (odd numbered buses).  It is later renamed Los Angeles Motor Coach Company.

More information can be found in the January 14, 1924 issue of Two Bells, the Los Angeles Railway employee news magazine and the February 10, 1924 issue of Pacific Electric Magazine.

 

 

1950:  Consulting engineer Arthur C. Jenkins submits his “Modernization Report” to Pacific Electric Railway Company.

Map of Pacific Electric passenger rail lines prposed for replacement by motor coach service and other changes (Click for more information)

After twelve months of study, Jenkins outlines the benefits of converting many streetcar lines to motor coach service, including:

  • Increased service standards
  • Abandonment of lightly patronized lines
  • Greater efficiency in service, cleaning and repair of equipment
  • More frequent renewals of equipment
  • Curb loading safety
  • Decreased congestion through curb loading
  • Flexibility of motor coaches in time of major disaster as compared to fixed rail lines
  • Removal of unsightly electric traction power poles and wires
  • Reduced noise
  • Improved air quality
  • Elimination of financial deficit

 

 

1966:  Santa Monica Freeway is completed, becoming the western terminus of Interstate 10.

Originally billed as the “Olympic Freeway,” the name was changed during the planning stages in 1958.