GEORGE A. GONZALEZ - fieldi

THE RISE OF THE AUTOMOBILE 53had a relatively small population. Hence, he obtained large tracts of land relativelyinexpensively, but these tracts were also widely dispersed throughoutthe region. Spencer Crump (1988), historian of Huntington’s interurban trolleysystem, the Pacific Electric, in the following describes how Huntingtonwould select where to run his trolley lines and acquire his land holdings:Huntington’s instinctive business foresight, not a battery of professionaleconomists frequently used by financial tycoons, was his instruments inchoosing the areas where his trolleys—and his investments in substantialland holdings—would go. Climbing a knoll, he would inspect the countrysideand visualize the logical course for an area’s pattern of development.(60)Utilizing this method, Huntington obtained scattered land holdings throughoutsouthern California. He also deployed a far-flung trolley system that onehistorian of urban mass transit referred to as “the most extensive interurban[trolley] system in the world” (Foster 1981, 17). This system would disperseeconomic activity and residential housing throughout the region. This dispersalof development would presage the highly diffuse urban developmentthat would characterize the Los Angeles region throughout the twentiethcentury and into the contemporary era (Fogelson 1967; Wachs 1984; Hise1997; Fulton 2001). Crump (1988) argues that when the Los Angeles trolleycars “finally rolled into the realm of history [in 1961], they left a sprawlingCity of Southern California built precisely as it was because the rail lines hadencouraged just that development” (115–116).The utilization of rapid transit to enhance land values and create urbansprawl was not unique to Los Angeles. The positive relationship betweenland values and rapid transportation had long been understood (Jackson1985; Stilgoe 1988). During most of the nineteenth century, however, walkingremained the primary means of getting around in urban settings, and as aresult cities were relatively compact and often highly congested (Rosen 1986;Schultz 1989).Early rapid transportation methods were of limited utility. Carriages andomnibuses were reliant on horse power, which severely limited their speed.Moreover, the costs of such modes of transportation restricted their use toaffluent city dwellers. The first methods of mechanized urban transportationhad limited utility for economic and/or political reasons. The use of steamengines within urban areas was resisted in part because residents feared theirexplosion. Additionally, the noise and air pollution emitted by such enginestended to depress the value of adjacent property. Also, their long stoppingdistance, or headway, undermined their usefulness for urban transport. Theother early approach to the mechanization of urban transportation was thecable car. Its high initial and maintenance costs, however, confined its use toonly the most densely populated areas (McShane 1994).