July 20: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

1920:  Los Angeles Railway lets streetcar operators choose their routes, according to seniority.

The “General Choice” begins twelve days later on August 1.

More information can be found in the July 19, 1920 issue of Two Bells, the Los Angeles Railway employee news magazine.

1940:  The Arroyo Seco Parkway, between Orange Grove Avenue in South Pasadena and Avenue 40 in the City of Los Angeles, officially opens to traffic.

The 3.7-mile section and the 0.8-mile portion between Glenarm Street in Pasadena and Fair Oaks Avenue, opened to traffic the previous year, make a distance of 4.5 miles. The only two “gaps” remaining to be completed are from Avenue 40 to Avenue 22 in Los Angeles (1.0 mile) and from Meridian Street to Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena (0.4 mile).

At the time, the highway was described as “three wide traffic lanes on each side of a raised central dividing strip with high standards of alignment and no streets or railroads crossing at grade.”  More information can be found in the August, 1940 issue of California Highways & Public Works.

2006:  The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations adopts its Fiscal Year 2007 Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing & Urban Development appropriations bill.  It includes $100 million in funding for the Metro Gold Line Eastside Light Rail project, and $1 million for Metro buses and bus facilities.  More information can be found in the July 20, 2006 Metro CEO Daily Brief.

2011:  The Los Angeles City Council passes landmark bicyclist anti-harassment legislation.  The measure is approved on a 12-0 vote.  More information can be found in the July 20, 2011 post on Metro’s The Source.