[sustran] Re: Book Review

[Lee Schipper]

Thanks, this looks very interesting. It's always fun to fly in to LA and
see if you can spot the Blue Line train (I usually only see one)!

I am just old enough to remember the Red cars in LA in the 1950s. WE
lived about 1/2 km from Venice and La Cienega, where the red car went by
on an overpass.  I wonder, how much longer would have the old red car
light rail lasted in LA without the alleged "conspiracy"? Maybe the
problem was people were not clustering homes at the stations or along
the lines?    Why did the French remove their rail from Paris in the
1950s? Why did the social democrat Swedes do this in Stockholm too (as
well as ripping up lots of the key diesel-based rail lines connecting
small towns)?  Why did Hanoi rip up its light rail decades ago, only to
let the French donate one last year?

There seem to be a message here, GM conspiracy or not. 

>>> richmond at alum.mit.edu 10/9/2005 9:07:24 PM >>>


Here's a review of my book in Technology and Culture, which most of you
on
this list probably would not otherwise see!

Best,

            --Jonathan


Technology and culture, July 2005

Transport of Delight: The Mythical Conception of Rail Transit in Los
Angeles. By Jonathan Richmond. Akron, Ohio: University of Akron Press,
2005. Pp. xix+498. $49.95.

"This book is a study about the failure of thought and its causes,"
writes
Jonathan Richmond in his introduction to Transport of Delight. "It
starts
with a bizarre decision: to construct a comprehensive rail passenger
system in an environment where it appears incapable of providing real
benefits." Richmond analyzes the decision to redeploy rail-borne
public
transit in a metropolitan area infamous for its congestion, smog, and
sprawl, and, most importantly, where he believes that by any rational
measure buses provide a superior mode of transit. He finds the
explanation
for this decision in the power of myth and symbol, image and metaphor,
citing extensively from linguistic experts such as Susan Langer,
George
Lakoff, and Martin Fossand on his first page quoting a passage from
Russell Ackoff's The Art of Problem Solving: "We usually try to reduce
complex situations to what appear to be one or more simple solvable
problems . . . sometimes referred to as 'cutting the problem down to
size.' In so doing we often reduce our chances of finding a creative
solution to the original problem." This is exactly what Richmond
believes
happened in Los Angeles beginning in the 1980s.

Richmond has done his homework. His book is based in part on more than
two
hundred interviews with public officials. He presents a history of
Henry
Huntington's Pacific Electric, the storied Red Car system that once
operated 1,100 miles of track radiating in all directions from Los
Angeles. He evaluates the case for modern light rail and the
forecasting
methodology used to predict passenger demand for the first route
planned
for the Los Angeles area, the Blue Line connecting with the region's
second-largest city, Long Beach. He reports that ridership forecasts
were
initially inflated. Then, just before the line opened, they were
deflated
in order to make the actual numbers look good.

Transport of Delight devotes considerable attention to the political
decision-making process that led to passage of Proposition A, the
local
half-cent tax that funded the return of electric railways, a process
ultimately dependent on "availability of a set of symbols, images, and
metaphors which come together coherently to create a myth that acts
with
the power of truth" (p. 6). The human body's circulation system, for
example, became a powerful metaphor for transit planners. Likewise
valuable was the perception among civic leaders that electric trains
were
"sexier" than buses, a perception Richmond addresses at length in a
section titled "The Train as Symbol of Community Pride: Penis Envy in
Los
Angeles."

Richmond notes the power of the mental image that remained after the
last
Red Cars disappeared in 1961, an image that gave rise to the notion
that
[End Page 661] the demise of a superior mode of transit was the result
of
a conspiracy in which General Motors played a key role. The first
local
railway started running between the harbor and downtown Los Angeles in
1869, the last Red Car line operated along this same corridor, and,
thirty
years after service ended on that line, rail-borne transit was reborn
in
the form of the Blue Line. This, Richmond feels certain, was a big
mistake. In his view, buses are a superior mode of transit for Los
Angeles, particularly in terms of their cost-effectiveness; just about
everything involving an electric railway is vastly more expensive than
rubber tire on paved roadway.

The Blue Line was brought into existence not on the basis of any
rational
assessment of available choices, but to reward political acumen,
particularly that of County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn (now deceased,
though
his son became mayor of Los Angeles), through whose Fourth District
was
routed not only the Blue Line but also two other new electric rail
lines -- all this in the wake of devastating riots in South Central
Los
Angeles and repeated recommendations that improved transit would have
beneficial social consequences.

The problem was "cut down to size," yes, but Richmond is certain that
it
was the wrong size. Whatever one may happen to think about the virtues
of
different modes of urban transit, Transport of Delight presents an
excellent case study in the power of myth, and it provides us with a
compelling picture of a place where culture and technology blend
seamlessly.

James Smart
Jim Smart is adjunct professor of journalism and public speaking at
California State University Fullerton and Cal State San Bernardino.
From
1981 until 1998 he served as head of media relations for the Southern
California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.

Permission to reprint a review published here may be obtained only
from
the reviewer.


-----
Jonathan Richmond
182 Palfrey St.
Watertown MA 02472-1835

(617) 395-4360

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu 
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/ 


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