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The original designers of the interstates didn't want the roads to go through the downtown areas. The idea was for the high-speed roads to go near cities, and h
by chiph 10y ago
The original designers of the interstates didn't want the roads to go through the downtown areas. The idea was for the high-speed roads to go near cities, and have spur roads (3-digit interstate numbers that start with an odd number) connect them - like the design of the original Autobahn.
But there was a coalition of mayors and municipal associations that pressured Congress to have the roads pass through their towns (jobs! progress!). President Eisenhower was not amused, but he found out too late to change the design.
A consequence of this was the bulldozing of historically black-owned property to make way for the new roads.
- dba7dba 10y agoThey didn't really NEED cars to move people around because Los Angeles area already had a GREAT light rail system called the Red Line. The current walkway on Venice Beach was what's left of that line. Can you imagine? An above ground light rail system running parallel to a beach in LA? They RIPPED it out thanks to lobbying by car companies and tire companies. Yay to lobbyists. Now, it takes a billion to build a few miles of a subway/lightrail system that practically goes no where...
- chiph 10y agoThe Red Line is the new Metro system (which was destroyed in 1997's Volcano). The electrified light-rail from the 1930's was the LA Railway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Railway GM, Firestone, and several other companies were indicted in 1949 for attempting to form a monopoly over local transit. The semi-urban legend part (it was never definitively proved there was a plot behind it all) was the ripping out of the streetcars, replacing them with GM-made bus networks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...
- coldpie 10y ago> A consequence of this was the bulldozing of historically black-owned property to make way for the new roads. Indeed. A couple years ago, the city of St Paul actually formally apologized for exactly this, destroying the primarily black Rondo neighborhood with freeway I-94. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/07/17/rondo-apologies-zelle-coleman/30328463/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/07/17/rondo-ap...