Transport of delight: The mythical conception of rail transit in Los Angeles

Miscellaneous · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:7070928

Richmond, J E.D.

The author notes that Los Angeles' once extensive Red Car' interurban rail system went out of existence because it no longer served consumer needs in an increasingly dispersed autopolis. Rail remains a poor choice, he feels precisely because of the dispersed form of the Lost Angeles economy. There is better scope for improving transit by using buses. Efforts to bring rail to Los Angeles failed until a consensus was reached. The consensus came in a climate where newly-prominent environmental concerns had focused attention on transit as a vehicle for combating urban problems, making rail appear an increasingly favorable option. Richmond uses a theory of myth and extensive documentation to test for the operation and mechanism of a hypothesized mythical belief in the power of rail to help solve the transportation and certain other urban problems of Los Angeles. Images are found to give misleadingly favorable impressions of trains, compared to buses. He concludes that a mythical belief in rail leads to bad decision making; it leads to the uncritical adoption of a particular technology, rather than to a discussion of social problems to be addressed.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7070928
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
LOS ANGELES
MASS TRANSIT SYSTEMS
DECISION MAKING
BUSES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
RAIL TRANSPORT
CALIFORNIA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
EVALUATION
LAND TRANSPORT
NORTH AMERICA
TRANSPORT
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
URBAN AREAS
USA
VEHICLES
320200* - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Transportation
291000 - Energy Planning & Policy- Conservation