December 7: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

1912:  Pacific Electric extends its San Fernando Valley Line to Owensmouth (now Canoga Park), over 29 miles from downtown.

While “Red Cars” had arrived on tracks in Owensmouth, the Van Nuys-Owensmouth Extension was formally completed in July, 1913.

1939:  A landmark in the birth of the Los Angeles freeway system comes when The Transportation Engineering Board, Stone & Webster, Madigan-Hyland submit their Transit Program For The Los Angeles Metropolitan Area to the Citizen’s Transportation Survey Committee and City of Los Angeles.

Detail of map for proposed Hollywood Parkway (Click for more information)

The report proposes that:

“As far as mass transportation is concerned, the ultimate solution of the rapid transit problem in a large and densely populated area can be found only in rail rapid transit, and there is no doubt but that such a solution will eventually be necessary in portions of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.

In the intermediate stage, a satisfactory alternative is available, for the provision of express highways and the operation of suitable buses thereon makes it possible to provide the desired rapid transit simultaneously for both private and public types of transportation.

The Board has therefore prepared a plan for such special stop-free highways and presents a pattern arrangement toward which it believes development should be directed.”

The report goes on to note that “by appropriate landscaping, an express highway may become an arterial parkway, and a utilitarian non-stop roadway thus transformed from a mere traffic lane to a pleasant thoroughfare.”

1921:  Pacific Electric begins motor coach service in Glendale.

An extensive history of the next ten years of bus service in Glendale can be found in the September-October, 1931 issue of Pacific Electric Magazine.