This week, the Metro Transportation Library and Archive takes us back 130 years to when cable cars were the mode of choice in our (then) very small town. The cable car era lasted only about a decade, but the first transit system after horse-drawn cars is not well-known and the images from the Library’s collection are [continue reading]
Nearly every day, we take a closer look at the story behind the story in selected transportation headlines of interest to our readers. Back in 2005, Metro’s Transportation Library & Archive was a pioneer in social media, collecting and disseminating news from various media outlets, as well as other blogs. Six years [continue reading]
The notion of “complete streets” has spread nationwide over the last several years, with policies enacted to accomodate all users: motorists, bicyclists, transit vehicles and their riders and pedestrians. Safe street design for those using roads and sidewalks sounds rather “pedestrian” today, but it wasn’t always that way — including in Los Angeles. In [continue reading]
1951: I Love Lucy debuts on television, the Korean War rages on and Los Angeles sees its first transportation agency run by government officials. The need for comprehensive, coordinated planning prompted the State of California to enact legislation creating the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, often referred to as “the [continue reading]
Metro’s Transportation Library & Archive has announced that it is a Global Launch Partner for Historypin. Historypin is an exciting new tool that brings together people, their communities and their shared history through mapping photographs alongside the stories behind them and an interactive timeline. This project has partnered with Google [continue reading]
Los Angeles’ transit history often reveals something brand new: a map we never knew existed, an angle to a story that helps us connect the dots, or new information from the past that informs planning our future. A closer look at competing transportation studies in 1948 turned up this hidden [continue reading]
