Transit’s Been On the Move for 100 Years

In a century that saw ever-changing forms of transportation--from stagecoaches to jets, from electric cars to Metrolink trains--the arrival of freeways, beginning in the 1940s, most dramatically changed the way San Fernando Valley residents traveled.

Although talk of a “motor parkways” system for Los Angeles began in the 1920s, creation of a freeway system was not possible until 1947 when the state Legislature increased highway taxes to fund construction.

The first segment of the Hollywood Freeway, which linked the Valley to downtown Los Angeles via Cahuenga Pass, opened in 1940; the freeway was completed in 1948. Work on other major Valley arteries took several years: the Ventura Freeway, 1955-1974; the Foothill Freeway, 1955-1977; the Golden State Freeway, 1956-1975; the San Diego Freeway, 1957-1969, the Glendale Freeway, 1958-1978; and the Ronald Reagan Freeway, 1968-1982.

Since mid-century, billions of federal and state road construction dollars have been spent to improve traffic flow with additional lanes and better interchanges throughout the region, and to seismically retrofit freeways.

Although automobiles are still the preferred mode of transportation, efforts are ongoing to get people out of their cars and onto public mass transit.

As the new century dawns, work on the final 6.3-mile leg of the $4.5-billion Red Line subway system is being completed. Two Valley stations--in North Hollywood and Universal City--are due to open by mid-2000 and will take passengers to and from downtown Los Angeles.

Metrolink, which started operating in 1992, carries 30,000 commuters a day throughout Southern California on six routes, including some in the Valley. By 2001, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes to double its daily ridership.

A century ago, Butterfield stagecoaches were still used for some long-distance travel. Northern and Southern California were connected by rail in 1876 when the San Fernando Tunnel was finished, but completion of the Chatsworth Tunnel on March 20, 1904, made trips by train even faster from the San Fernando Valley to San Francisco on the Coast Line Limited.

For shorter distances, travelers came to rely on the Pacific Electric Red Car, which was started by Henry E. Huntington in 1901 as a way of developing real estate. For an average of less than a penny a mile, the interurban rail network could take Valley riders to destinations throughout Southern California.

Red Cars even briefly ran down the middle of the Hollywood Freeway. But with the growing popularity of the automobile and with auto-making, tire and gasoline companies conspiring against it, the Red Car had died out by 1961.

The Valley is also home to Van Nuys and Burbank airports.

Van Nuys, which opened in 1928, is now the world’s busiest general aviation airport.

In recent years, the airport, run by the city of Los Angeles, has seen a decline in the number of recreational fliers in favor of jets primarily owned by charter companies and corporations.

The more expensive jet aircraft, which bring in higher rents, greater tax revenue and more jobs at higher salaries, have created an economic boom at Van Nuys Airport. But the jet traffic has also brought more complaints from area residents about noise, pollution and other quality-of-life issues.

Burbank Airport, the Valley’s only commercial airfield, opened in 1930 and is controlled by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. After years of feuding, Burbank city officials and the airport authority finally agreed in August to an expansion plan that would replace the existing terminal, part of which is nearly 70 years old.

The plan still must get over several hurdles--including more public hearings and approval by Burbank City Council and the Federal Aviation Administration--before construction can begin.