A Transportation History Lesson

For more on this video, and the process used to create it, read on after the jump.

Long before Los Angeles was considered the car capital of the world, our city was a haven for what is now widely considered "alternative transportation."  Near the turn of the century, a bike highway connected downtown Pasadena and Los Angeles.  More recently, a series of red car trolley lines ran to all parts of the city.

Two articles this week highlighted some of our transportation roots, both locally and nationally.  The first, A Brief History of Bicycles in Los Angeles at KCET tracks L.A.'s bikeroots all the way back to how the city and county reacted to the invention of the bicycle in the late 1800's.  The article is full of history and pictures, my favorite of which is of the L.A. Times bicycle club, embarking on a trip from the Downtown to Hollywood.

Meanwhile, the amazing website, Metro Primary Sources took a look some of the first television commercials, appearing after Rosemary Clooney's and Liberace's television shows, back in the 1950's.  In addition to just posting the comemrcials to YouTube, Primary Sources also links to informational articles about the creation of the short sketches.  

Both articles are a fun reads. And after a controversial week, it's nice to take a second to relax.