ROUTES OF THE LOS ANGELES RAILWAY - 1920

INTRODUCTION

This document is taken from an original leaflet issued by the Los Angeles Railway in 1920. Changes in street names have been annoted in this version.

NEW ROUTES

of the

Los Angeles Railway

With general information of interest to the public.

Effective May 9, 1920

NEW TRANSFERS

IMPORTANT NOTICE

With the new routing of cars a new form of Transfer will be issued, if requested, at time fare is paid. It will be accepted at any point shown on back of transfer.

The old transfer has been good up to 15 minutes after time indicated. It is important to remember that the new transfer must be presented BEFORE THE TIME INDICATED BY THE PUNCH MARK.

New Fare Boxes

New fare boxes are being installed on all the cars. When you enter a car equipped with the new fare box, if you have pennies for fare please do not drop them into the box, but hand them to the conductor, who will give you a nickel for you to drop into the box.

By observing this practice you will save busy employees a great deal of unnecessary work, as pennies deposited in the fare box will render it necessary to empty the penny receptacle at frequent intervals.

THE NEW ROUTING

How the Public Will be Benefited Thereby

The remarkable growth of Los Angeles, together with the phenomenal annual increase in the number of automobiles operated in the business district, resulted in such an increase in street congestion that about 1918 it became apparent that a complete reorganization of the plan of street car routing would have to be devised.

The policy of the Los Angeles Railway Company up to that time had been to operate practically all lines through the congested downtown district by way of Main, Spring, Broadway and Hill streets, each line connecting with outlying communities exhibiting a wide line of demarcation between classes of traffic handled, contour of the land and density of population

The re-routing plan is the outcome of an exhaustive investigation made by experts of the State Railroad Commission and the Board of Public Utilities. It was designed best to serve the need of the general public and at the same time to yield sufficient revenue to enable the Company to continue to render service, and to improve that service, under the established 5-cent fare.

Under the re-routing the flow of traffic, as car movement is commonly designated, is "evened out" so there will be no unusual congestion at any one particular point, except such as may temporarily follow unanticipated heavy traffic at street intersections.

As a result there will be a great saving in time, greater convenience to the traveling public, fewer accidents and less danger to life and limb, and other benefits.

The new plan eliminates 9 of the 37 curves that formerly were operated in the congested district, or 25% of the total. This change in itself will prove a very great relief to traffic of all kinds.

All street cars have been removed from Third street west of Main and entirely from Eighth street, thus leaving these two thoroughfares for automobile traffic exclusively.

DETAILS OF ROUTES

The following is a list of the street car lines with signs designating route or destination, streets traversed, and headways in minutes. "Headway" means time elapsed between scheduled movement of cars on the same line. The figures show this time for the morning rush hour, midday (9:00 A. M. to 4:30 P. M.), evening rush hour (4:30 to 6:00 P.M.), night (up to 12:30 A. M.), and Owl Cars. It will be noted that all Owl Cars do not travel of the same route taken by cars of the same line during the day.

ANGELENO & CROWN HILL

AVENUE 20

BROOKLYN & HOOPER AVE.

EAGLE ROCK & HAWTHORNE

EAST FOU RTH & HOOVER ST. (Hoover St. Branch)

EAST FOU RTH & HOOVER ST. (Dalton Ave. Branch)

EAST JEF FERSON & 38TH ST.

GAGE STREET SHUTTLE (Eastern Extension of West Pico & East First St.)

GRAND & MONETA (54th & Mesa Branch)

GRAND & MONETA (Manches ter & Arlington Branch)

GRIFFITH & GRIFFIN AVE.

HOMEWARD AVE. SHUTTLE

INDIANA STREET SHUTTLE

MAPLE & HELIOTROPE DRIVE

MATEO ST REET SHUTTLE

SAN PEDR O & WESTERN AVE.

STEPHENSON & WEST 7TH ST.

TEMPLE S TREET (Through Line)

UNIVERSI TY & CENTRAL AVE. (Manches ter Ave. Branch)

UNIVERSI TY & CENTRAL AVE. (West 39 th St. Branch)

UNIVERSI TY & CENTRAL AVE. (39th & Vermont Turnback)

VERMONT AVENUE SHUTTLE

VERNON & VERMONT AVE

WASHINGT ON & GARVANZA

WEST ADAMS ST. SHUTTLE

WEST ADA MS & LINCOLN PARK

Signs: Ends---"North Broadway." "West Adams St." Sides--"North Broadway." "West Adams St."

WE ST 11TH AND LINCOLN PARK

WEST FIRST ST.

WEST JEF FERSON AND HUNTINGTON PARK (Transfe r at Vernon for Huntington Park)

WEST JEFFERSON AND HUNTINGTON PARK (Through Line)

WEST 9TH AND EAST SECOND ST.

WE ST PICO AND EAST FIRST ST.

WEST SIX TH STREET

LASALLE AVE. SHUTTLE

INTERESTING FACTS

______________________

SMALL ROADWAY IN LOS ANGELES The relatively small area of roadway (that portion of the streets between the curbs) in the congested district, in proportion to the total area of that district, is shown below:

Of the seven cities referred to Los Angeles furnishes the least room for its vehicular traffic and San Diego the most room.

LIMITED SIDEWALK SPACE

Incidentally, pedestrian traffic also suffers from lack of sidewalk space. Note these figures showing proportion of total area of the congested district:

San Diego...................18.8 %
Seatt;e.......................17.17%
Toledo.......................16.43%
Salt Lake City.............15.8 %
Denver........................15.1 %
Portland......................13.4 %
LOS ANGELES.........11.9 %

MONSTROUS PAY ROLL

The biggest single industry in Los Angeles is the Los Angeles Railway, manufacturer and distributer of street car service. Its pay roll is about $4,250,000 per year. This means that on a six-day-week basis, it pays its 2000 employees of all classes over $13,500 per day.

FREE TRANSFER

Thirty-five percent of all street car passengers receive free transfers.

Almost 5,500,000 free rides (for public officials and employees) cost fare payers $275,000 last year.

This, with other factors, made the average fare about 3« cents. If a nickel was worth, in 1919, but 2« cents, the average fare last year was worth a cent and three-quarters!

OUR SHARE OF PAVING

The Los Angeles Railway has paved: 320 miles of single track 19 feet wide. 248 miles of permanent work.

It has paid $3,000,000 for pavement, chiefly asphalt. 57 cents of every fare paid during a 7-year period has gone into street pavement.

This means:

$2000 per day for paving, including depreciation, obsolescence, etc.

$250 per day for paving repairs alone!

WEIGHTY PROBLEM

27,000,000 pounds of street cars are required to carry our passengers.

1600 pounds of street car are required for every passenger carried--at an average of 23 passengers per trip.

50,000,000 pounds of humanity are carried daily, assuming the average weight of passengers to be 115 pounds.

WHERE 900,000 NICKELS WENT

$45,000 for steel rails and connections at Fourth and Spring Streets, including $2500 for pavement!

This means that 160 feet of double track, 80 feet laid in each direction, i worth nearly $200 per running foot. Costly feat!

EXCEEDING THE SPEED LIMIT

30,000,000 miles, or over 1200 trips around the world at the equator, in one year on a street car!

82,000 miles per day average!

3400 miles per hour average on an 18-hour-day basis.

During the "rush hours" of each day (about 3 hours) the 725 to 730 cars in service each day travel a distance equal to that around the world.

The above figures cover only cars used exclusively for passenger transportation by the Los Angeles Railway.

SEVEN MILES OF STREET CARS

The Company operates 867 passenger cars. In single file, as closely together as it is possible to place them, they would make a procession over 7 miles long.

More than 21 miles of track are required for handling these cars in various barns and in closed yards.

AROUND THE WORLD FOR

$70.25 Do you realize that you can ride on one of the lines of the Los Angeles Railway, a distance of 17.71 miles for five cents?

Do you know you can continue these rides if you so desire until you have ridden a distance equal to that around the world at the equator--for $70.25?

Just think of girdling the globe on a street car in 94 days at a cost of 75 cents per day!!!

ACROSS THE CONTINENT FOR $9.40

On the above calculation you could travel from Los Angeles to New York for $9.40.

OTHER FACTS IN FIGURES

INCIDENTALLY

MOVING PICTURES

Do you know the moving picture industry is the third largest in the world and 80% of America's output is produced in Los Angeles?

13,000 people are employed in the studios in and around Los Angeles.

$150,000,000 worth of moving pictures were produced here last year.

AUTOMOBILES

Do you know that they are manufacturing automobiles in Los Angeles and selling them all over the United States?

There are 67,000 pleasure cars in Los Angeles (exclusive of 10,000 from other States), and 16,000 trucks.

There is one automobile to every 6.6 persons in Los Angeles.

There are approximately 7,884,000 automobiles in the whole world. Of these, there are 6,500,000 in the United States alone. That means there are five times as many motorcars in the United States as in all the rest of the world.

MANUFACTURING

Do you know that in 1919 Los Angeles enjoyed an increase in its manufacturing industries of 66% over the previous year?

We have over 12,000 manufacturing establishments employing over 102,000 persons. It is estimated that the value of our manufactured products this year will be $618,772,000.

TELEPHONES

There is a telephone for every four men, women, and children in the City, placing Los Angeles fare ahead of all other cities in the world in this respect.

WHERE TO GET CARS

Routes of principal lines of the L. A. Railway traveling in the business district:

NORTH SOUTH STREETS

BROADWAY

NORTH SOUTH
E. 1st St. (Boyle Heights) West Pico St.
Eagle Rock City Grand Ave
Hawthorne

SPRING STREET
NORTH SOUTH
East 2nd & Santa Fe Station Moneta Ave.
Griffin Ave West 9th St.
Griffith Ave

MAIN STREET

NORTH SOUTH
Garvanza Washington
East 4th St. (Vt. Hts.) Hoover St.
Brooklyn Ave. Hooper Ave.
South Main St.

HILL STREET

NORTH SOUTH
North Broadway West 11th St.
North Main St. West Adams St.
Angeleno Hts. Crown Hill

EAST WEST STREETS

FIRST STREET

EAST WEST
E. 1st St. (Boyle Hts) West Pico St
North Broadway West 11th St.0
North Main St. West Adams St.

SECOND STREET

EAST WEST
East 2nd and Santa Fe Station West 1st St.
West 9th St.

FIFTH STREET

EAST WEST
Cemtral Ave/ University
So. Pacific Station West 5th St.
Vermont Ave.

SEVENTH STREET

EAST WEST
Huntington Park West Jefferson
Santa Fe Ave. W. 6th (Melrose Ave.)
Stephenson Ave. W. 7th (Heliotrope)
Maple Ave. W. 7th (Western Ave.)
*San Pedro St.

*San Pedro & Western Ave. Line--Temporary route from 7th and Spring, via Spring and Fifth, to San Pedro St.

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Compiled 1997 by Gale Edward Vandeventer