From: marks@pro-palmtree.socal.com (Mark Schaeffer)
Subject: Re: LA metro
Organization: The Palmtree BBS - 310/453-8726 - Santa Monica, CA
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 22:07:07 GMT

compata@cup.portal.com (David H Close) writes:

>In a similar vein, I have a map produced by the ACSC in 1964 which shows
>the projected freeway network in greater LA in 1984.  How many of you have
recently driven on the Reseda, Whitnall, or Beverly Hills freeways?  These
>are just a few among many others shown on the map.  I wonder how the
traffic
>situation in LA might be if all these freeways actually had been built.

I did some reading at UCLA this year about the freeway system that was
projected for the basin.  In 1958, a freeway plan was developed that was
based on the idea of having parallel freeways every four miles or so. The
Beverly Hills freeway went along Santa Monica Blvd and connected to the
Glendale Freeway at its southern end.  The Slauson Freeway was to go from
Marina del Rey east (Did you ever why the Marina Freeway was so wide and so
short? Now you know).  The Anderson (ex-Century) Freeway was to go to San
Bernardino or Riverside.  The Whatnall Freeway was east-west in the Valley,
between the 101 and the 118. There were plans for two or three freeways
through the San Gabriels to the desert, not counting the one (Antelope
Valley) that did get built.  And all of this is a partial list of the
freeways that *didn't* get built!

What happened?

Ronald Reagan, for starters.  When he became govenor in 1967, he said there
would be no tax increases, not even for highway construction.  Graphs of
money spent on highways, and miles built, show this to be the start of the
end of the first California freeway era.  Jerry Brown shifted gas tax
revenue to the general fund, but the slowdown in construction had already
set in.

Note I said the "first" era.  We in the LA area are in for a lot of freeway
construction in the next few years.  The Foothill freeway will be completed
from Pomona to San Bernardino, where a small segment was built years ago.
On the east side of this segment, the connection to I-10 is under
construction.  The Long Beach freeway may be built through South Pasadena,
though that would require settling a 19 year old suit.  Carpool lanes will
be added to the existing system, as is happening now on the 405, south of
LAX.

Excuse me for wandering around a bit, and for the length of this post.
Another reason the 1958 system wasn't finished, besides money, was the
objection to cutting new transportation corridors through established
neighborhoods.  Consider the Beverly Hills freeway.  The city of Beverly
Hills told the state, in effect, you can build your freeway here, on two
conditions: (1) no on or off rams in Beverly Hills, and (2) it has to be
built underground.  

I hope we do get a nonhighway mass transit system here.  Did you read the
recent Times story about the man in his seventies with a bad record, who
failed his driving test, and was then allowed to drive home?  That man has
no business being behind the wheel.  But not having a car means isolation,
and the RTD is stretched way too thin now.  A mass transit system would
serve the infirm and the young, and the rest of us could use it for daily
commuting.  Win-win all around, *if* the system is built smart.  That is
not a certainty, as the debacle of Rep. Waxman forcing the subway out of
the Fairfax district, due to a now-discounted gas hazard, demonstrates.

Again, apologies for the length.  My knowledge of LA freeway history is
pretty thin, and if there's someone on the board that has firsthand
knowledge of the political issues, I'd be interested in reading them.