TO LIVE AND DRIVE IN L.A.

While the basic configuration of the Los Angeles region is residential and commercial development was based on fixed-rail transportation, it is now generally credited as being the first major urban region shaped by the automobile. In this evolution the rail mode disappeared completely. Now the city has reached a stage which is too big and dense to function as an automobile-city but is so dependent on that mode and so spread out that it would not work as a public transit city. As population grows, Los Angeles becomes more dense at its center and spreads further from its edges, perpetuating its transportation problems. Mobility is the city's most pressing issue. The transition from the system of interurban and street railways of a half-century ago to today's freeway network is traced. Although it has been argued that rubber-tired transport makes the most financial sense, the author notes that cities are physical places, as well as economic ones, and an auto-based transport system--even augmented by buses--is not capable of supporting the residential and employment densities occurring in most American urban centers. Southern California Rapid Transit District, carrying 1.5 million riders daily, is the nation's largest bus-only transit agency. While construction has now started on a 22-mile light-rail line between Los Angeles and Long Beach, generally over the alignment of the abandoned Pacific Electric Railway, and clearance has been given on construction of a subway northwest out of the downtown, objections continue to develop against revival of the rail mode. The author sees more rubber-tired transportation on freeways and city streets as only a short-term solution. He notes that urban design suffers badly in auto-based cities because moving and storing vehicles consumes so much land and defeats attempts at human scale, concluding that mobility seems likely to elude solutions currently available.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1762461
• Corporate Authors:

  American Planning Association

  1313 East 60th Street
  Chicago, IL  United States  60637-2897
• Authors:
  • Pastier, J
• Publication Date: 1986-2

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 21-25
• Serial:
  • Planning
  • Volume: 51
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: American Planning Association
  • ISSN: 0001-2610
  • Serial URL: http://www.planning.org

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile ownership; Land use; Light rail transit; Metropolitan areas; Population density; Public transit; Rapid transit; Socioeconomic factors; Traffic congestion; Urban development
• Geographic Terms: Los Angeles (California)
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00455029
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 1988 12:00AM