Broadway Traffic, 1930

December 1930: Broadway and 3rd Street.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Authority Library and Archive is a wonderful source of old photos. Here's one of Broadway at 3rd Street taken in December 1930. The Times Building in the center-right portion  of the image, with the tower, is the one built after the October 1910 bombing. This image and others of downtown Los Angeles may be seen here. I read this picture as a traffic jam: Two lanes of cars, bumper to bumper, another set of cars parked at the curb and a line of three streetcars. Whoever took this picture evidently stood somewhere on the first car, either the running board or the front bumper. And we want the streetcars back on Broadway? Dec. 14, 1930: Sure enough, the topic of the day is how to relieve traffic congestion. The proposed solution was a subway. And no, we didn’t build one. I can’t say it often enough: Traffic in Los Angeles is a century-old problem that defies simple solutions.