June 18: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

1941:  The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission presents to the County Board of Supervisors their Comprehensive Report On The Master Plan Of Highways For the Los Angeles County Regional Planning District, Volume 1 (The Plan & Its Preparation).

The report follows the February 27, 1940 adoption of a Master Plan of Highways of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning District, “outlining a reasonable and practical means for putting it into effect.”

Driving time map

(Click to enlarge)

The report puts forth eleven recommendations.

These include:

That the basis for financing all acquisition and construction shall include the funds derived under State Law from the motor vehicle fuel tax and from motor vehicle licenses

That State Legislation be sought to provide for the creation of a county-wide Highway Authority charged with the custody of all highway funds, and their expenditure in accordance wit hthe Master Plan and a sound priority program based on actual traffic needs

That each incorporated city within the Region be urged to adopt a Master Plan of Highways and precised official plans based thereon, in accordance with the procedure set forth in the Planning Act of the State of California

Washington & Culver

Plans for Washington & Culver Boulevards, Culver City (Click for more information)

The report also projects that several decades in the future, Los Angeles County’s population would level off between 1970 – 1990 at 6,000,000.

(The U.S. Census would later report the Los Angeles County population in 1970 as 7 million, and over 8.8 million in 1990).

It projects that by 1990, there will be approximately 2.5 million automobiles in the County (while the actual number is closer to twice that many).