2nd Street cable car, circa 1889. (LAPL Digital Archives, Permitted Use)
A week ago this blog brought you the news that L.A.’s streets have been ranked the nation’s third most deadly to pedestrians. But have our streets always been so mean?
Obviously, such statistics weren’t kept 117 years ago, but this April 21, 1892, Los Angeles Times “City Brief” may offer a clue:
“People should be careful about getting on or off moving cable and electric cars, especially in rounding curves. A man took a ‘header’ on Broadway last evening, coming down on the pavement with such violence as to almost dislocate his vertebrae.”
Ouch! Were these the same safe, reliable old cable and electric cars that downtowners romanticize so much today?
