How California Car Culture Killed The Promise Of A 20-Minute Commute

KPBS News ^ | April 16, 2018 | Meghan McCarty Carino/KPCC

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

There are some interesting historical pictures in the original article.

[faithhopecharity]

Governor Jerry Brown (in his first incarnation as governor) abruptly halted all public works constructions in Californcation...including highways (and water resources)...in about 1974 or so........and there has hardly been any significant new freeways since...... even though the state’s population has more than doubled

the highways were (mostly) not clogged up when Jerry Brown shut them down....but after JerryB decided to shift the public works budget to, mostly, more welfare payments.......today’s horrid congestion and road rage attacks, violence.....ensued

[MarchonDC09122009]

Fascinating story.
However the envio-Agenda 21 propagandists misplace blaming Freeways or cars for horrendous traffic congestion.
1. The population of CA has doubled from 20 million in 1978, to 40 Million, so naturally highways that worked well 40 years ago are obsolete and impossible to double capacity.
2. California has three million illegal aliens that should not be there.
3. Real estate development has grown at an insane rate.

FCA

[ProtectOurFreedom]

In 1964, Alexander was a newly minted teenage driver, many freeways had just been built and he got a job as a clown in the L.A. City Traveling Circus, performing at city parks from the San Fernando Valley to the port cities. “We were truly able to ride the speed limit at any time of the day,” he said.

Wow, I got to CA in '73 and worked extensively in LA '73 to '76. I remember living in Westwood near Pasadena and taking a girl out in Laguna Beach, about 60 miles away. I was headed home one Saturday night and traffic was crawling about 15 mph at 2 AM!

I find it hard to believe that he could "ride the speed limit at any time of the day." LA freeways were always clogged from the 50s.

My wife and I went 90 miles from the San Fran Peninsula to near Modesto last Saturday. Horrible traffic everywhere!

[Mr. Jeeves]

I think illegal aliens had more to do with that. :)

[Enchante]

People can always have a 20 min. commute (or less).... they just have to live very very close to their workplace.

[Fiji Hill]

The reason there's so much congestion is that although the population has surged in the past four decades, we're driving on 1972 freeways. Plans to expand the freeway system included:

• The Beverly Hills Freeway, which would have connected the Hollywood and San Diego Freeways along Santa Monica Blvd. A local Democratic politician, Anthony Beilenson was instrumental in blocking this project.

• The Whitnall Freeway would have run down the center of the San Fernando Valley. The right-of-way had been acquired, and all that was left was to pour the concrete--but Caltrans walked away from it.

• The Pacific Coast Freeway would have run down the coast from Santa Monica into Orange County.

• The Slauson Freeway would have run along Slauson Ave. through South-Central LA and across the East Side into Orange County.

• There were also plans to build a freeway along Highway 39 from Huntington beach to Azusa and to connect the Foothill Freeway with the San Bernardino Freeway. This connection was partly completed, but as you proceed south, the freeway peters out into a residential neighborhood in West Pasadena.

The fall-off in freeway construction seems to have paralleled the state's shift to the Left.

[Mastador1]

California's car culture didn't kill the 20 minute commute, it was the booming economy, population explosion, cheap homes built on cheap land in bedroom communities and oh yeah, Jerry FREAKING MOONBEAM GAIA WORSHIPING Brown killing highway and freeway construction during his first mismanagement as governor that set the state back decades! But hey I guess I just remember things different.

[American in Israel]

Far, far more than 3 million migrants, whole cities have few Caucasians in them now. I would guess 60 percent non Americans in East LA.

In Realto, around 95%. I worked there a week and saw one other Caucasian.

[webheart]

It has more to do with things like HOV lanes, uneducated drivers from all over the world and electronic truck driver logging. HOV lanes cause people to cross three lanes of traffic to get in and out. So they cut in front of six other cars. Uneducated drivers get in the left lane and stay there. Truck driver logging makes truck drivers travel in rush hour instead of at night like they used to. And ethanol fuels make cars break down. And don’t forget about all the people commuting to mass transit.

[moovova]

She’s real fine, my 409.

[faithhopecharity]

And when Jerry brown destroyed the excellent highway department, he replaced it with a dept of transportation that focused on , of all things, bicycle paths

[faithhopecharity]

Hilariously, the incompetent and unqualified political hack Jerry Brown forced in to running the highway department he deliberately crippled — was named Adriana Gisnturco. Affectionately translated as The Giant Turkey by all the staff (and most Californians , once they saw their roads being ruined and their easy ten minute commutes turning into two hour hells

[faithhopecharity]

Gianturco. Giant Turkey 🦃

[ConjunctionJunction]

Colony (TV show on USA Network) has the answers for too much congestion in L.A.:

-Alien invasion
-EMP
-Depopulation
-Fascism / police state
-Only the elite get to drive around in cars. Everybody else has to walk, ride buses, or ride bicycles.

The Progs dream about this stuff - fewer people, fewer cars, Big Government in charge.

[kiryandil]

California, home of the TARDS-IS.

They are much more retarded than they appear from the outside...

[Pontiac]

You forgot High Speed Rail Roads to no-where.

[Nifster]

Yeah but the snarky attitude toward free citizens being able to travel anywhere they want is obvious. Car culture? That’s part of being a free citizen Living in LA is a choice

[Nifster]

Exactly

[Yaelle]

Hey look! No homeless encampments or drug dealing under these freeways in 1956!