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Comment by wathef

16 hours ago

Los Angeles had the largest public transportation network in the United States until we paved over it[1]. We had over 1,300 miles! You could've gone from Huntington Beach to Downtown and all the way up to Burbank. You can see many of the maps of Los Angeles at the public library[2]. I don't live there anymore, love that place though.

[1] - https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/from-rail-to-roads-an...

[2] - https://www.lapl.org/research-guides/maps/maps-los-angeles

7 comments

wathef

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rustywasm  16 hours ago

My mom (who is 97) has a vivid memory of seeing FDR in 1935 -- the whole extended family took the the Red Car from Compton to downtown to see his motorcade. She remembered the electric trams worked really well, especially for folks without much money.

  • davidw  15 hours ago

    > worked really well, especially for folks without much money

    That's probably part of the reason they got rid of them. You still see that argument used against transit: "it will bring _____ to our part of town".

    • bean469  2 hours ago

      The main reason as far as I'm aware was due to intense lobbying from car companies. It makes absolute sense from the perspective of Ford, etc. to have alternative modes of transport be removed from the streets