Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City
As the first great auto-age metropolis, Los Angeles deserves study to understand the public choices that were made and the pattern that other cities followed. Unlike some books, like Howard Preston's Automobile Age Atlanta ( LJ 8/79), Bottles's does not focus on social consequences. Instead, he deals with public policy, particularly as it was influenced by public attitudes toward mass transit alternatives. For Bottles automobiles came to dominate Los Angeles because the public believed cars met their personal and economic needs better than street cars or trains. He rejects the idea of a conspiracy of car-related industries or the mere technological superiority of the automobile as reasons for the outcome. A well-argued but controversial scholarly defense of the automobile-age city. Charles K. Piehl, Associate Dean, Arts & Humanities, Mankato State Univ., Minn.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.