Abstract

This project uncovers the role of buses and their riders in shaping Los Angeles urban history in two crucial moments. First, while the private automobile inexorably altered American mobility, the bus quietly became the dominant form of public transit, replacing streetcars by the mid-1950s. I argue the jitney (the precursor to the bus, a short-lived owner/operator business phenomenon throughout the U.S. in the 1910s) directed the shift into automobile-based public transportation by giving riders a choice in transit, ultimately resulting in the end of interurban rail service. Secondly, the movement into public ownership of mass bus transit in the 1950s was inspired in part by riders, resulting in the municipally-directed systems we now find common. This decision to create publicly-owned public transportation occurred in the post-WWII context of Cold War fears of government oppression and socialism, marking transportation as something of an outlier in the cultural construction of social and municipal responsibility. Still, the limitations placed upon transit by Angelinos in the form of funding and planning failures ultimately reinforces the skepticism of government as a provider of services.The dissertation intends to prove that riders directed the movement into road-based public transportation in a quest for more efficient transportation that met their needs more effectively than urban rail. It further analyzes the moral and ethical implications of why 1950s Los Angeles--amid a historical moment actively promoting private mobility in the form of massive federal and state highway programs--chose to assume public control of an erstwhile private industry. Public ownership changed the sort of access into transportation planning and operation, allowing ethical and moral issues (such as the social effect of fare increases, union activity, and unprofitable route service into low income areas) to challenge the dollars-and-cents approach to transportation planning previously, and unsuccessfully, embraced by private ownership. Although the boundaries placed upon public transit by citizens of Los Angeles ultimately emphasize ideas of limited government (in keeping with other Cold War-period studies of American culture), the assumption of public transportation under public ownership in the 1950s was an important change in the cultural interpretation of transit as a social responsibility, rather than a private entrepreneurial opportunity.In each step of this dissertation, riders are the primary catalyst, directing the changes in transit through market forces, through choice in the technology they preferred, or through funding of transit projects. Despite all the urban planning and top-down transit schemes--private or public--riders retained the ability to reshape transit in L.A. in the twentieth century through each moment of the city's transportation history.

Abstract

How many Teslas will it take to crash the Los Angeles, California, grid? This thesis conducts a thought experiment to explore whether rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Los Angeles will reduce the reliability of electric power in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) service territory. Federal and state regulations are encouraging the shift to electric transportation in support of policy priorities that include reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources. However, high market penetration by EVs will change the patterns of electricity use, especially in urban areas. Under some scenarios, EVs could pose a risk to the reliability and resilience of the electric grid serving these areas. To explore this issue, I developed a model that projects the impact of EVs on the peak power load in Los Angeles in 2030 under different scenarios of EV market penetration and constraints on demand for vehicle charging (e.g., time-of-day pricing). I found that even with moderate EV penetration, if vehicle charging is unconstrained, the load placed on the LADWP grid will exceed the established reserve margin in 2030. Only by adopting some form of incentives for EV drivers to shift their power demands from the normal end-of-day charging routine will the LADWP be able to maintain the reliability and resilience of the power grid. http://archive.org/details/hittingtheaccele1094563490 Civilian, Department of Homeland Security Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.