CA RxR 3.15: LA Metro Archives (Bonus)

A New Year’s Gift for you: Our last Bonus Episode of Season 3. Episode 3.15 features an interview with Claire Kennedy, Archivist for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Agency (LA Metro). In this role, Claire manages the LA Metro Archives, which date back to the 1800s and the earliest horse-drawn transportation in the city. These archives cover not only the wide variety of transit agencies in Los Angeles, but also the highway and road system as Metro is the Regional Transportation Agency. These archives are a public resource, and are open by appointment; information on how to make an appointment is in the podcast (and below). Note that we had some trouble with Zencastr this episode; we fell back to FreeConferenceCall.com. We’ll pick up in the October with Season 4, which will cover Route 8 through Route 14.

Here’s the link to the show:

And here’s the link on Spotify for Creators:

Here are some relevant links (I may edit this to add more links in later):

We encourage you to explore our back catalog through this site or our Spotify for Creators home.

 

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CARxR 1.06: Chronology – CEQA and RealityCARxR 1.06: Chronology – CEQA and Reality

In this episode, we conclude our exploration the history of the State Highway System with the last episode in this 6-part miniseries. This episode focused on the post-1969 era in the stat highway system: the changes in the highway system after 1969; the impact of the environmental quality acts, and the growing involvement of the regional transportation agencies. We also explore the changes in governance of state highways.

Our interview is with Gary Ruggerone, who was the Caltrans District 5 Environmental Branch Chief from June 1980 until December 2010 when he retired from Caltrans. He started as as an Environmental Planner in D7 in March 1979, one of 5 environmental planners hired off the very first Environmental Planner Civil Service Exam. He was directly involved with Caltrans during the early days of CEQA and NEPA and is joining us to provide valuable insight on the impact of the CEQA. Gary is currently the Owner/Principal Environmental Planner of Piedra Environmental Consultants, a local environmental planning firm specializing in CEQA and NEPA analysis and regulatory permit compliance for transportation-related projects. A life-long resident of California, Gary earned a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, and a Master of Arts in Population Aquatic Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Here’s the link to the show:

And here’s the link on Anchor.FM:

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CARxR 2.01: Route 1 – Orange CountyCARxR 2.01: Route 1 – Orange County

Welcome back to season 2 of California Highways: Route by Route. With Season 2 we return to the original premise of the podcast: Going route by route through every state highway. We start with Route 1 and its segment in Orange County. In this episode, we’ll go over what was the first national highway, the first state highway, the first legislative route, and then explore the history of today’s route 1, looking specifically at the segment from Dana Point to Seal Beach. We hope to pick up the pace a little (after all, we have 34 planned seasons to get through), and the next episode will cover Route 1 in Los Angeles County.

Here’s the link to the show:

 

And here’s the link on Spotify for Podcasters:

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CA RxR 4.05: I-10: Santa Monica FreewayCA RxR 4.05: I-10: Santa Monica Freeway

With Episode 4.05, we turn our attention to Route 10. This first episode on Route 10 starts with an exploration of the 10th route (the last ordinal route we’ll do), which was the Emigrant Gap Highway, and became the basis for LRN 37. This became part of the Lincoln Highway, then US 40, and is now part of I-80 from Sacramento to Nevada. We look at LRN 10, which became Route 198 from US 101 near San Lucas to Sequoia National Park. We then explore Sign Route 10 (which we discussed in our episode on I-5 in Los Angeles county), which ran from US 101A to US 101, later becoming Route 42 and US 101 Bypass, and eventually I-105 and I-5. Lastly, we turn to post-1964 Route 10, which is today’s I-10. In this episode, we focus on the first segment:  “From Route 1 in Santa Monica to Route 5 near Seventh Street in Los Angeles”, which is today’s Santa Monica Freeway. We look at its origins as Sign Route 6, which became Sign Route 26 along LRN 173, LRN 166, and LRN 171. We focus on LRN 173 (LRN 166 and LRN 171 were discussed in our episode on I-5 in Los Angeles county, as well as our episode on Route 6), which was Olympic Blvd. We explore the history of the Santa Monica Freeway segment, the experiments tried along this highway, some significant projects along this segment, and some significant names on this segment.

We will complete our exploration of Route 10 in Episode 4.06, which explores the San Bernardino Freeway: Its origins in LRN 26 and LRN 64 and the Ramona Airline. The history and strange intertwinings of the US highways that were signed on Route 10: US 60, US 70, and US 99. The transition to I-10 and the story of Route 10S. Lastly, we’ll cover projects and names on the segment.

Here’s the link to the show:

And here’s the link on Spotify for Creators:

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