The Transformation of the Pacific Electric Railway: Bradford Snell, Roger Rabbit, and the Politics of Transportation in Los Angeles

In his account of the motorization of transit in Los Angeles, Bradford Snell focused on industry-based interest group politics and on modal conflict. These obscure the politicization of transport issues at the metropolitan level. Competition between place-based coalitions to attract and retain mobile capital investment structured not only urban transport politics but also controversial efforts to create governmental transit agencies. In this article the author critiques Snell's account and provides an alternative analysis of the fate of the Pacific Electric Railway that is grounded in the political economy of the Los Angeles region in the period immediately preceding and following World War II.