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__NOTOC__[[File:1920_Sherman_Way_in_downtown_Owensmouth.jpg|thumbnail|left|325px|Sherman Way in downtown Owensmouth in 1920. Present day downtown Canoga Park, in the western San Fernando Valley.]]By 1920, the streets of Los Angeles’s central core were some of the most congested in the United States. Pedestrians, streetcars, trains , and automobiles all competed for space on Los Angeles’s city streets , and its leaders had struggled with numerous proposed solutions to relieve traffic. This paper will examine how How did the city of Los Angeles reacted react to its crammed streets and why they street? Why did the City ultimately decided to depend on tie its future growth to the automobile. ? Los Angeles’s response to paralyzing traffic fundamentally changed America’s streets because it served as a model for cities throughout the country. Instead of emphasizing mass transit and dense housing, other cities followed Los Angeles lead and promoted the automobile as the ultimate solution to congested urban cores.

Several scholars have questioned why Los Angeles rejected mass transit in favor of the automobile. In <i>Bourgeois Utopias</i>, Robert Fishman argues that Los Angeles deemphasized mass transit because land developers outside of the urban areas wanted to encourage growth away from transit lines. Peter Norton in “Street Walking, Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street,” argues that automotive interests, not necessarily real estate developers, were the primary motivators for promoting the widespread adoption of cars. While Norton does address addresses Los Angeles specifically, his argument has much broader implications, because he believes that motorists and auto advocacy groups (motordom) fought nationally to transform America’s streets into car thoroughfares.  According to Norton, motordom sought to eliminate pedestrians, trains , and street cars streetcars from city streets and create automobile -centric roads. In Scott L. Bottles’s <i>Los Angeles and the Automobile</I>, he claims that widespread dissatisfaction with the companies managing the city’s mass transit encouraged the city and citizens to turn to automobiles to solve Los Angeles’s gridlock problems. Angelinos favored cars because mass transit had failed to meet their needs. While there is some overlap in these arguments, these scholars fundamentally disagree over the spark that triggered the automotive age. While each of these arguments has merit on their own, Bottles argument is ultimately the most persuasive because he presents a compelling case that Angelinos had given up on mass transit. ====Los Angeles Grows Rapidly====[[File:Junction_at_Main_Street.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|The Junction of Main Street, Spring Street, and 9th Street, Los Angeles, ca.1917]]In 1890, Los Angeles had only 11,000 citizens and was the 187th largest city in the United States. But by 1930, it had grown to 1.2 million people in Los Angeles (2.3 million in the metropolitan area) and was the largest city in the West.<ref> Robert Fogelson. <i>Bourgeois Nightmare: Suburbia, 1870-1930</i>, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005), 147. </ref> While Los Angeles lacked water, capital, coal , and a port in 1890 by 1930 it had “an artificial river tapped from the Sierras, a federally subsidized harbor, an oil bonanza, and block after block of skyscrapers under construction.” <ref> Mike Davis, <i>City of Quartz</i>, (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), 24-25.</ref> During this time, Los Angeles was the fastest growing city in the United States , and much of this growth occurred between 1920 and 1930.  During the Roaring Twenties, approximately 1.4 million people moved to Los Angeles and Orange County. <ref> Scott L. Bottles, <i>Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City</i> (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 184.</ref> People were attracted to jobs in the oil business, Hollywood, and construction. The continued expansion of Los Angeles fueled its own frenetic growth. Few, if any, cities could have successfully managed this type of explosive, long-term population growth. Unlike older American cities, Los Angeles was decentralized at birth and was never particularly accessible to pedestrians. Los Angeles was established after the introduction of the horse-drawn streetcar. This innovation permitted early residents to commute by streetcar to the central business district. Electric trolleys and trains were also fairly quickly introduced to the Los Angeles street. Early mass transit permitted Angelinos to move to even more distant suburbs early in its history. Consequentially, the central business district was not as densely populated as comparable downtowns in other American cities, and it never catered to pedestrians.  The invention of balloon frame house furthered suburban development because many Angelinos could afford to buy these modest suburban single-family homes by 1870.<ref>Bottles, 179.</ref> This early pattern of decentralized growth continued over the next four decades as people immigrated to suburbs such as Pasadena, Long Beach, and Hollywood and commuted into the city center by train or streetcar. Still, even though Los Angeles was decentralized “the region had a genuine center that dominated employment, shopping, culture, and government.”<ref>Fishman, 159-160</ref> ====The Development of Mass Transit====One of the prime beneficiaries of Los Angeles suburban growth was the owner of the Pacific Electric Company (PE), the operator of the Los Angeles electric train system, Henry E. Huntington. Before PE built new tracks in Los Angeles, Huntington purchased the land that adjoined before word leaked out that the train line would be extended through his new land. Huntington then laid out suburban housing developments on these properties. After the tracks were built, Huntington would then sell the properties. Huntington also solicited kickbacks from independent housing developers to ensure that the train would connect them to downtown. Huntington was one of the strongest advocates for downtown, and he played a major role in Los Angeles early growth patterns. As Los Angeles’s growth began to accelerate, Angelinos became increasingly frustrated with streetcar and train companies. Like many American cities, Los Angeles depended on private rail companies for the mass transit service. The city gave the Los Angeles Rail Company (LARY) and the Pacific Electric Company (PE) monopolies, and they served as its exclusive rail providers. But as the city’s exclusive rail carriers, the companies became responsible for financing both rail service and expansion.  As immigrants poured into Los Angeles, streetcars and trains became increasingly crowded. During rush hours, both men and women were forced to stand on streetcars, and they could barely accommodate the growing number of commuters. Neither LARY nor PE could keep up with demand. The growing, decentralized layout of Los Angeles and the companies’ insistence on linking all the rail lines to the central business core complicated their efforts to expand their lines to meet customer demand.<ref>Bottles, 39</ref>  The rail companies also faced exceptionally high costs to expand their rail networks. Neither company was able to effectively expand their rail lines after 1913 because they could not “attract investment capital.” Investors were unwilling to finance the companies because they were saddled with enormous debt loads. The companies were not particularly profitable, and investors were understandably concerned that PE and LARY could not service their debts.<ref>Bottles, 40</ref> LARY’s and PE’s inability to meet passenger needs could have angered many Angelinos. <dh-ad/>Finally, railroads had alienated Americans throughout the country during the last half of the nineteenth century because freight and passenger trains had “killed and maimed people with regularity” on America’s streets. Historian David Stowell argued that the railroads in Buffalo, New York in the 1870s had become extraordinarily unpopular among the city’s middle class. Middle-class Buffaloans had become angry with the railroads because they allied with rail workers during the “Great Strike” of 1877.<ref>See generally, Stowell, David. <i>Streets, Railroads and the Great Strike of 1877</i> (University of Chicago Press, 1999)</ref>  While the feelings of New Yorkers may not seem relevant to Los Angeles, it is important to note, that most Angelinos were not natives and they would have carried with them their opinions of railroads from their hometowns, such as Buffalo. Injuries on trains became so frequent through the country that during the nineteenth and early twentieth century American courts fundamentally altered tort law to force railroads to improve safety standards.<ref> See generally Barbara Young, Welke. <i>Recasting American Liberty: Gender, Race, Law and the Railroad Revolution, 1865-1920</i>, (London: Cambridge University Press, 2001).</ref> ====The Rise of the Automobile====[[File:Panoramic_view_of_Los_Angeles,_showing_Sixth_Street,_Figueroa_Street,_Flower_Street,_east_side_of_Sixth_Street,_ca.1916_(CHS-5795.6).jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|View of Sixth St., Figueroa St., Flower St. and Sixth St. cs. 1916, Los Angeles]]Just as PE’s and LARY’s problems began to intensify, they were faced with a new and more flexible transportation option, the automobile. At the turn of the century, automobiles were rare and expansive, but that quickly changed. In 1908, the Ford Motor Company introduced the Model T. The Model T was not only solid and well-built, but it was also fairly cheap. Within a few years of the car’s introduction, the Model T became affordable for middle-class Americans. The Model T was especially well-suited for the growing Los Angeles sprawl. Unsurprisingly, Angelinos bought more cars per capita than anywhere else in the country. By 1915, on average there was one car for every 43.1 Americans, but in Los Angeles, there was one car for every 8.2 Angelinos. Over the next ten years, car ownership grew dramatically. In 1920, there was one car per 3.6 Angelinos and five years later there was one car for every 1.8 citizens.<ref>Bottles, 92.</ref> Angelinos owned more cars per capita than any other urban area in the world.<ref>Fishman, 162.</ref> Increasingly, Angelinos were turning to automobiles to navigate Southern California growing road network.  The rapid adoption of automobiles by Angelinos strained Los Angeles city streets. The city’s central business was especially taxed by the influx of cars. Cars, trains, streetcars, and pedestrians competed for space on Los Angeles city streets. While most trains stopped short of the central business district, the narrow streets could not accommodate autos, streetcars, and pedestrians. One report claimed that the congestion problem was “exceeded” by no other city.<ref>Fishman, 162.</ref> Even before the introduction of the car, the central business district “suffered from streetcar congestion.”<ref>Bottles, 15</ref>  Unsurprisingly, the introduction of the car made a congested downtown even more impassable. Cars not only interfered with the smooth and timely operation of streetcars by driving on their tracks, but the streets of the central business district also became a parking lot where Angelinos stored their cars when they were at work or shopping. In 1920, the City Council even passed a law that banned parking from downtown, but City Council quickly lifted after businesses in the central core experienced sharp declines. These three forms of transportation could not coexist on Los Angeles’s narrow city streets, but automobiles had demonstrated their critical importance during the parking ban.<ref>Fishman, 74-88.</ref>

Unlike older American cities, Los Angeles was decentralized at birth and was never particularly accessible to pedestrians. Los Angeles was essentially established after the introduction of the horse-drawn streetcar. This innovation permitted early residents to commute by streetcar In addition to exacerbating congestion in the central business districtdistricts, autos made the downtown streets increasingly unsafe. Electric While streetcars were they were somewhat more predictable than cars and trains stayed on tracks; motorists were also fairly quickly introduced to the Los Angeles streetutterly capricious. Early mass transit permitted Angelinos to move to even Even more distant suburbs early in its history. Consequentially, the central business district problematic was at this time that traffic was not nearly as densely populated as comparable downtowns completely unregulated in other American cities and it never catered to pedestriansLos Angeles. The invention mix of congestion and unsafe street conditions forced the city of balloon frame house furthered suburban development because many Angelinos could afford Los Angeles to buy these inexpensive suburban single family homes by 1870. This early pattern repeatedly address the problems of decentralized growth continued over the next four decades as people immigrated downtown congestion and develop plans to suburbs such as Pasadena, Long Beach, and Hollywood and commuted into deal with the city center by train or streetcarcity’s progressively more treacherous streets. Still, even though Los Angeles was decentralized “the region had a genuine center It is at this point in the story that dominated employmentFishman’s, shopping, culture Norton’s and governmentBottles' narratives began to diverge drastically. Each of the scholars began to emphasize different facts to draw significantly different conclusions.”

One of the prime beneficiaries ====Los Angeles chooses a different development strategy than older cities====[[File: Los_Angeles_1917.jpeg|thumbnail|left|300px|Westminster Hotel, looking down Main Street from 4th Street, ca.1917 Panoramic view of Los Angeles suburban growth was the owner of the Pacific Electric Company (PE), ca.1917]]Robert Fishman argues that the operator city of the Los Angeles electric train sacrificed both its mass transit system, Henry E. Huntington. Before PE built new tracks and the central business district in Los Angeles, Huntington purchased the land that adjoined before word leaked out that 1920s to preserve the train line would be extended. Huntington then laid out city’s suburban housing developments on these propertiesideal. After the tracks were builtHe believes that as congestion intensified, Huntington would then sell the property. Huntington also solicited kickbacks from independent housing developers Los Angeles “was forced to ensure that the train would connect them adopt a new strategy to downtownpreserve” its suburban model. Huntington Fishman minimized the problems PE faced and claims that PE was one of the strongest advocates for downtown “still strong” in 1924 and he played a major role had reached “its all-time peak in Los Angeles early growth patternspassenger miles.”<ref>Fishman, 161, 62.</ref>

As Los Angeles’s growth began In an attempt to accelerate, Angelinos became increasingly frustrated with streetcar and train companies. Like many American citiessolve the congestion crisis, Fishman claims that Los Angeles depended on private rail companies was presented with two competing proposals for addressing the mass transit servicecity’s transportation problems. The Los Angeles Rail Company (LARY) and the Pacific Electric Company (PE) were given monopolies by lobbied the city and they served as its exclusive rail providers. But as a group of influential civic leaders to finance the city’s exclusive rail carriers, the companies became responsible for financing both rail service construction of an above and expansionbelow ground electric train system. As immigrants poured into Los Angeles, streetcars and trains became increasingly crowded. During rush hours, both men and women were forced PE’s plan was designed to stand on streetcars and they could barely accommodate preserve the growing number of commuters. Neither LARY nor PE could keep up with demand. The growing, decentralized layout of Los Angeles downtown’s preeminence and solve the companies’ insistence on linking all city’s traffic problems by moving the rail lines to trains off the central business core complicated their efforts to expand their lines to meet customer demandstreets. The rail companies also faced exceptionally high costs to expand their rail networks. Neither company was able to effectively expand their rail lines after 1913 because they could not “attract investment capital.” Investors were unwilling to finance the companies because they were saddled with large debt loads. The companies were not particularly profitable and investors were understandably concerned that PE and LARY would not be able service their debts. LARY’s and PE’s inability to meet passenger needs could have angered many Angelinos.

Finally, railroads had alienated Americans throughout the country during the last half The Automobile Club of Southern California alternately advocated for a plan that fundamentally redesigned the nineteenth century because freight city’s streets to create thoroughfares and passenger trains had “killed and maimed people with regularity” on America’s streetsspeed automobile traffic.<ref>Fishman, 164-65. </ref> David Stowell argued that The traffic plan described by Fishman is the railroads Major Traffic Street Plan (MTSP) which was designed in Buffalopart by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., Harland Bartholomew, New York in the 1870s had become extraordinarily unpopular among the city’s middle classand Charles H. Cheney. Middle-class Buffaloans had become angry with The MTSP asked the railroads because they allied with rail workers during city council “to place a $5,000,000 bond issue on the “Great Strike” ballot” to pay for “10 to 20 percent” of 1877. While the feelings of New Yorkers may not seem relevant plan to alter Los Angeles, it is important to note, streets. Fishman claims that most Angelinos were Los Angeles did not natives and they would have carried with them their opinions the money to carry out both of railroads from their hometowns, such as Buffalo. In fact, injuries on trains became so frequent through the country that during the nineteenth these plans and early twentieth century American courts fundamentally altered tort law in an effort it was forced to force railroads decide which transportation system to improve safety standardspromote.

Just as PE’s and LARY’s problems began According to intensifyFishman, they were faced with a new and more flexible transportation option, the automobile. At the turn proponents of the century automobiles were rare Los Angeles central business district faced off against rural landowners and expansive, but that quickly changedsuburban advocates. In 1908, the Ford Motor Company introduced While both the Model T. The Model T was not only solid mass transit and well-builtroads bond issues were put to a vote, it was fairly cheap. Within a few years civic leaders strongly advocated on behalf of the car’s introduction, MTSP because it furthered the Model T became affordable for many middle class Americanssuburban ideals embodied by Los Angeles. The Model T was especially well-suited for the growing If Los Angeles sprawl. Unsurprisinglyfixed its mass transit system, Angelinos bought more cars per capita than anywhere else in development would be focused around the countrytrain lines. By 1915Land prices would rise, on average there was one car for every 43.1 Americansand it would become increasingly expensive to build single-family homes along these lines, but in Los Angeles there was one car for every 8.2 Angelinos. Over the next ten years, car ownership grew dramatically. In 1920, there was one car per 3.6 Angelinos and five years later there was one car for every 1.8 citizens. Angelinos owned more cars per capita than any other urban area in this would complicate further expansion by the worldcity. Increasingly, Angelinos were turning Los Angeles had grown dependent on single-family developers to automobiles to navigate Southern California growing road networkbuild houses for recent arrivals.

The rapid adoption of automobiles by Angelinos strained Los Angeles Single-family developments were ideal for the city streets. The city’s central business was especially taxed by the influx of cars. Cars, trains, street cars and pedestrians competed for space on Los Angeles city streets. While most trains stopped short of the central business district, the narrow streets because they could not accommodate autos, streetcars be financed cheaply and pedestriansit reduced the city’s infrastructure costs. One report claimed that the congestion problem was “exceeded” by no other cityMost single-family home developments could be started with minimal financing. Even before Developers would buy rural land from farmers and finance the introduction construction of the carsubdivision’s infrastructure, the central business district “suffered from streetcar congestionincluding “roads, lighting, and drainage.” Unsurprisingly, The developer could then sell mortgages for the introduction first phase of the car made a congested downtown even more impassable. Cars not only interfered with the smooth and timely operation of streetcars by driving on their tracks, the streets of the central business district became a parking lot where Angelinos stored homes to pay off their cars when they were at work or shoppinginitial loans. In 1920, the City Council even passed a law that banned parking from downtown, but City Council quickly lifted after businesses in After the central core experienced sharp declines. These three forms initial set of transportation could not coexist on Los Angeles’s narrow city streetshomes was built, but automobiles had demonstrated their critical importance during the parking ban.In addition to exacerbating congestion builder would then finance any future home construction in the central business district cars made downtown streets increasingly unsafesubdivision with these early mortgage sales. While streetcars were clearly they were somewhat more predictable than cars and stayed on tracks<ref>Fishman, motorists were utterly capricious. Even more problematic was at this time that traffic was completely unregulated in Los Angeles164. </ref> The mix of congestion developers could earn large profits, and unsafe street conditions forced the city could cheaply expand because developers paid all of Los Angeles to repeatedly address the problems of downtown congestion and develop plans to deal with the city’s progressively more treacherous streets. It is at this point in the story that Fishman’s, Norton’s and Bottles’s narratives began to drastically diverge. Each of the scholars began to emphasize different facts in an effort to draw significantly different conclusionsits infrastructure costs.

Robert Fishman argues that While retail businesses and downtown developers favored the mass transit plan, far more people benefited from the city of Los Angeles sacrificed both its MTSP. Roads, unlike mass transit system and , could not only connect people to downtown, but it would also join the central business district in growing suburbs. Civic organizers railed on behalf of the 1920s MTSP and started a well-organized campaign to preserve get the city’s suburban idealbond issues approved. He believes that as congestion intensifiedWhile civic leaders vigorously advocated for the MTSP, Los Angeles “was forced to adopt a new strategy to preserve” its suburban modelsmall section of the PE plan was “decisively defeated. ” Fishman minimized the problems PE faced and claims that it only then did the PE was “still strong” in 1924 and had reached “its all“began its rapid deterioration.”<ref>Fishman, 166.</ref><dh-time peak in passenger milesad/>While Fishman’s conclusions are compelling, they undermined by insufficient evidence.” In an attempt His entire argument is based on the assumption that Angelinos wanted to solve preserve the congestion crisissuburban character of Los Angeles, Fishman claims but he fails to identify voices within the city that portrayed the Los Angeles was presented with two competing proposals for solving debate over the city’s transportation problemsbond issues in these terms. PE lobbied He has not sufficiently demonstrated that Angelinos saw the city and a group bond issue as either an affirmation or rejection of influential civic leaders to finance the construction of an above and below ground electric train systemsuburban growth model. PE’s plan was designed to preserve He has elevated the downtown’s preeminence and solve vote on the city’s traffic problems by moving bond issues as a vote on the trains off the streetsconcept of suburbia. The Automobile Club of Southern California alternately advocated for a plan He has deemphasized the local concerns that fundamentally redesigned citizens had about the city’s streets election to create thoroughfares and speed automobile trafficstrengthen his broader points on suburbia. The traffic bond plan described proposed by Fishman is the Major Traffic Street Plan (MTSP) which PE was designed in part by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.expensive, Harland Bartholomew and Charles H. CheneyAngelinos undoubtedly realized that only benefit some suburban residents while the MTSP potentially benefited all of the cities motorists. The passage of the MTSP asked the city council “to place a $5,000,000 bond issue on the ballot” could be just as easily attributed to pay for “10 to 20 percent” of the plan to alter Los Angeles streets. Fishman claims fact that Los Angeles did not have the money to carry out both MTSP had a broader coalition of these plans and it was forced to decide which transportation system to promotesupporters.

According the What Fishman, the proponents of successfully explains is why Los Angeles central business district faced off against rural land owners and adopted a suburban advocatesmodel for growth. While both He demonstrates that suburban development was an incredibly cost-effective way for the mass transit and roads bond issues were put city to a vote, civic leaders strongly advocated on behalf quickly develop enough homes for the massive influx of the MTSP because it furthered the suburban ideals embodied by Los Angelespeople between 1870 and 1940. If Los Angeles fixed its mass transit system, development It is clear why city planners would be focused around prefer a growth plan that limited the train lines. Land prices would rise and it would become increasingly expensive to build single family homes along these lines and this would complicate further expansion capital outlays by the city. of Los Angeles had grown dependent on single family developers to build houses for recent arrivals. Single family developments were ideal for the city of Los Angeles because they could be financed cheaply and it reduced subcontracted both the city’s infrastructure costs. Most single family home developments could be started with minimal financing. Developers would buy rural land from farmers and finance the construction the subdivision’s infrastructure, including “roads, lighting and drainage.” The developer could then sell mortgages for the first phase of homes its neighborhoods to pay off their initial loans. After the initial set of homes was built, the builder would then finance any future home construction in the subdivision with these early mortgage sales. The developers could earn large profits and the city could cheaply expand because private land developers paid all of its infrastructure costs.

While retail businesses ====The Rise and downtown developers favored the mass transit planPower of Motordom====Norton sees a similar process to Fishman, far more people benefited from the MTSP. Roadsbut he argues that it was motordom, unlike not suburban advocates which ultimately killed mass transit, could not only connect people to downtown, but it would also connect in favor of the growing suburbs to each othermotor age. Civic organizers railed on behalf Instead of examining the MTSP and started a well-organized campaign to get the two bond issues approved. While civic leaders vigorously advocated for voted on by the MTSPcity, a small section of Norton examines the PE plan was “decisively defeated.” Fishman claims that it only then did campaign waged by motordom, starting in the PE “began its rapid deterioration.”While Fishman’s conclusions are compelling1910s, they undermined by his lack of evidenceagainst pedestrians. His entire argument is based on the assumption that Angelinos wanted to preserve the suburban character of The roots for Los Angeles, but he fails Angeles’s transition to identify voices within single driver cars started much early than the city that portrayed the debate over the bond issues in these termsprocess described by Fishman. He has not sufficiently demonstrated that Angelinos saw the bond issue As soon as either an affirmation or rejection of the suburban growth model. He has elevated the vote on the bond issues as vote on the concept of suburbia. He has deemphasized the local concerns cars began to use city streets, Norton explains that citizens had about the election to strengthen his broader points on suburbiaautos and pedestrians came into immediate conflict. The bond plan proposed by PE was expensive Drivers and Angelinos undoubtedly realized that only benefit some suburban residents while the MTSP potentially benefited all of the cities motoristspedestrians began hurling epithets at each other. The passage of the MTSP could be just Drivers labeled pedestrians who recklessly crossed city streets as easily attributed to the fact that the MTSP had a broader coalition jaywalkers and walkers accused motorists of supportersbeing joyriders.

What Fishman successfully explains is why Los Angeles adopted a suburban model While these invectives may initially appear to be innocuous, these tags highlight this earlier struggle for growthcontrol of city streets. He demonstrates Norton argues that suburban development was an incredibly cost effective way for motordom effectively changed “prevailing conceptions of the city street” and conditioned urban residents to quickly develop enough homes for accept the massive influx cars takeover of people between 1870 and 1940their streets. It is clear why city planners would prefer a growth plan that limited By criminalizing jaywalking, motordom laid the capital outlays by groundwork for the city takeover of Los Angelesthe streets by cars.<ref>Peter D. The city was effectively able to subcontract both Norton, “Street Walking, Jaywalking and the financing and Invention of the construction Motor Age Street,” <i>Journal of its neighborhoods to private land developersTechnology and Culture</i> Vol. 48, Num. 2, (April 2007): 333-334. </ref>

Norton sees a similar process to FishmanBy the early 1920s, but he argues that it was motordom, not surburban advocates which ultimately killed mass transit in favor the Automobile Club of the motor ageSouthern California sought to convince city police to issue citations to jaywalkers for failing to use crosswalks. Instead of examining the two bond issues voted on by the cityInitially, Norton examines the campaign waged by motordom, starting in the 1910s, against pedestrianspolice officers simply ignored jaywalkers and failed any issue citations. The roots for Los Angeles’s transition to single driver cars started much early than the process described by FishmanAutomobile Club then engaged in a public relations campaign designed stigmatize jaywalking. As soon as cars began Instead of asking police officers to use city streetsarrest jaywalkers, Norton explains that autos and pedestrians came into immediate conflict. Drivers and pedestrians began hurling epithets they advocated whistling at each otherjaywalkers to curb their conduct. Drivers labeled After a year of ridiculing pedestrians who recklessly crossed city streets as , police officers were finally willing to cite jaywalkers and walkers accused motorists of being joy ridersforce pedestrians to obey traffic laws. While these invectives may initially appear to be innocuousWhen Los Angeles approved the MTSP, these tags highlight this earlier struggle for control it was simply demonstrating that motordom had successfully demonized pedestrians and criminalized their unfettered use of city the streets. Norton argues does not believe that motordom effectively changed “prevailing conceptions this transformation of the city street” and conditioned urban residents to accept the cars takeover of their streets. By criminalizing jaywalkingwas inevitable, motordom laid the groundwork for but the takeover result of the streets by carsa long struggle over its purpose. <ref>Norton: 333-334</ref>

By Norton makes an intriguing argument that it was motordom’s long-term campaign to challenge the early 1920straditional understanding of city streets, which was ultimately decisive in laying the Automobile Club of Southern California sought to convince city police to issue citations to jaywalkers foundation for failing to use crosswalksthe motor age. InitiallyWhile it does appear that motordom, police officers simply ignored jaywalkers and failed any issue citations. The Automobile Club then engaged in a nebulous term at best, waged protracted battle with motorists, it is not convincing that this public relations campaign designed stigmatize jaywalkinglaid the groundwork for the motor age. Instead Additionally, by 1925, most Angelinos would have been part of asking police officers to arrest jaywalkers, they advocated whistling at jaywalkers in an effort to curb their conductthe loose coalition that comprised motordom. After a year of ridiculing pedestriansUltimately it was not special interests, police officers were finally willing which passed to cite jaywalkers and force pedestrians to obey traffic laws. When Los Angeles approved the MTSP, it was simply demonstrating that motordom had successfully demonized pedestrians and criminalized their unfettered use of the streetscity’s motorists. Norton does not believe that this transformation of the city streets was inevitable, but the result of a long struggle over its purpose.

Norton makes an intriguing argument that it was motordom’s long-term campaign to challenge By focusing on the traditional understanding social reconstruction of city streets, which was ultimately decisive Norton ignores dominant economic factors in laying the foundation for favor of the motor ageautomobile. While it does appear that Even if motordom, had successfully social reconstructed the street as a nebulous term at best, waged protracted battle with motoristsplace, it is would have been moot if cities had not convincing determined that this public relations campaign laid the groundwork for the motor agecars could cheaply promote population growth. Additionally , if people had not bought automobiles then any effort by 1925, most Angelinos motordom to socially reconstruct the street would have been part quickly overturned in favor of the loose coalition that comprised motordoma more economically viable paradigm. Ultimately it Americans ultimate acceptance of the socially reconstructed street was not special interestsbased on motordom public relations campaign but on Americans, which passed including Angelinos, willingness to the MTSP, it the city’s motoristsinvest their money in automobiles and adopt them as their primary mode of transportation.

By focusing on ====Mass Transit Fails Angelenos====Scott Bottles promotes a substantially different explanation for why Angelinos adopted the social reconstruction of city streets, Norton ignores powerful economic factors in favor of MTSP and turned toward the automobile. Even if motordom had successfully social reconstructed He claims that Angelinos preferred the automobile to mass transit and simply expressed this preference at the street, it would have been moot if cities ballot box. His argument is based on several pieces of evidence. Angelinos had not determined that cars could cheaply handle population growthbecome increasingly dissatisfied with their mass transit system. Additionally, if people The streetcars and trains had not bought automobiles then any effort by motordom been unable to socially reconstruct keep up with Los Angeles’s rapid expansion after 1913. The local media and Angelinos had become extremely skeptical of the street would have quickly overturned in favor motives of a more economically viable paradigmboth LARY and PE. Americans ultimate acceptance of They believed that the socially reconstructed street was not based on motordom public relations campaign, but on Americanstransit companies were sacrificing service in an attempt to squeeze larger profits. The city’s residents increasingly sought other transportation options, including Angelinos, willingness to invest their money in jitneys and automobiles and adopt them as their primary mode of transportation.

Scott Bottles promotes a substantially different explanation for why Angelinos adopted the MTSP and turned toward the automobile. He claims that Angelinos preferred the automobile to mass transit and simply expressed this preference at the ballot box. His argument is based on several pieces of evidence. Angelinos had become increasingly dissatisfied with their mass transit system. The streetcars and trains had been unable to keep up with Los Angeles’s rapid expansion after 1913. The local media and Angelinos had become extremely skeptical of the motives of both LARY and PE. They believed that the transit companies were sacrificing service in an attempt to squeeze larger profits. The city’s residents increasingly sought other transportation options, including jitneys and automobiles. While PE and LARY had effectively scuttled jitney service in Los Angeles, they struggled to eliminate cars from downtown streets. PE and LARY did convince the city to briefly ban parking in the central business districtbriefly, but the ban probably undermined support for mass transit among Angelinos. Even more problematic was that the transit companies had limited sway in the city’s growing suburbs. Unfortunately for the transit companies, the suburbs were quickly becoming new retail and commercial options. The suburbs began to represent a very real genuine threat to the survival of the central business district.

Angelinos also bought huge vast numbers of automobiles between 1910 and 1925 and by 1925 most households had access to a car. In Los Angeles, motordom would have included most of the city’s householdshomes. The car was perfectly ideally suited for navigating and connecting Los Angeles’s numerous various suburbs. It became less important for Angelinos didn't need to preserve the urban core because jobs and shopping were migrating beganing to migrate to the suburbs. Instead of going downtown, Angelinos in the 1920s were becoming increasingly aware that they could to commute to other suburbs for work or shopping via their cars. Industrial businesses also began to relocate to the suburbs when trucks began to take over the short haul shipping business from freight trains. Trucks permitted factories to move to cheap the inexpensive rural and suburban areas because they no longer needed to be next to a train line. The booming economy of the 1920s was fueled by industrials businesses building factories “on the periphery of the city.” <ref>Bottles, 198.</ref> Factories no longer had to be accessible to trains , and the widespread acceptance of cars made it possible for even working class Angelinos to drive to work. After Angelinos expressed their preference for automobiles, city planners began to plan for an automotive city.  Bottles believe that Los Angeles’s transition to a transportation system dominated by the car was inevitable. Once Angelinos widespread dislike of the mass transit was paired with an attractive alternative, the city’s residents could reject the mass transit monopolies. The decentralized nature of Los Angeles also ensured that this transition would occur much earlier there than anywhere else in the country. The Angelinos love affair with their cars convinced them to forget about mass transit. Bottles conclusions about why Los Angeles ultimately chose automobiles over trains are the most compelling. Bottles successfully demonstrate that Angelinos were unsatisfied with mass transit and were willing to buy cars as a potential alternative. While Bottles never explains why Angelinos bought so many cars between 1910 and 1930, it is unlikely that so many Angelinos would have invested in cars if the city mass transit system had met their growing needs. Had Angelinos been truly satisfied with LARY and PE, it is unlikely that they would have so quickly adopted such a comparably expensive alternative. Something was driving the widespread demand for automobiles. ====Conclusion====Bottles explanation for why Los Angeles chose the car over mass transit does not appear to be particularly popular. Norton charges that urban transportation did not evolve in response to consumer preferences. He does not approve of the notion that people could have preferred cars to mass transit or walking. Instead, he posits that consumers were duped into accepting cars because of the public relations campaign by motordom that successfully reconstructed Americans understanding of the street. Norton’s thesis suggests that car buyers did not want to purchase their cars, but they were simply tricked into buying them. Norton completely ignores the notion that cars appealed to consumers because they “celebrate[d] individual choice.”<ref>Norton, 333.</ref>

Bottles clearly believes Norton’s philosophical view of cars blinds him to the unlimited possibilities that Los Angeles’s transition to a transportation system dominated by the car was inevitablepresented for an early twentieth American. Once Angelinos widespread dislike Norton’s argument reinforces the notion that academics have traditionally railed against “the social, intellectual and artistic poverty of the mass transit America’s middle-class suburbs” because ultimately it was paired with an attractive alternative, middle-class Americans who created the city’s residents could reject the mass transit monopoliesmotor age. <ref> Robert Bruegmann, <i>Sprawl: The decentralized nature A Compact History</i>, (Chicago and London: University of Los Angeles also ensured that this transition would occur much earlier there than anywhere else in the country. Chicago Press, 2005), The Angelinos love affair with their cars convinced them forget about mass transit125.</ref>

Fishman, Norton, and Bottles conclusions about each seek to explain why Los Angeles ultimately chose automobiles both Americans and Angelinos turned over trains the future of their transportation system to the automobile. While Bottles conclusions are ultimately the most compellingconvincing, Norton and Fishman do make valuable contributions. Bottles Norton has successfully demonstrates demonstrated that Angelinos were unsatisfied with mass transit motorists and were willing pedestrians came into almost immediate conflict, but his argument only suffers when attempts to buy cars as a potential alternativeexpand its significance. While Bottles never explains Fishman makes an extraordinary contribution by explaining why Angelinos bought so many cars between 1910 and 1930suburbs became the dominant model for urban growth, it but his account of the Los Angeles bond vote is unlikely that so many Angelinos would have invested in cars if the city mass transit system had met their growing needsoverly conceptual. Had Angelinos been truly satisfied with LARY and PEFinally, while Bottles conclusions are the most logical, it is unlikely that they would have so quickly adopted such a comparably expensive alternativedo not appear to be watertight. Clearly something was driving the widespread demand for automobilesHopefully, scholars will continue to examine this debate.