Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont Scripps Senior Theses Scripps Student Scholarship 2017 All Roads Lead to the Fair: How a 2022 Los Angeles World's Fair Would Accelerate the Implementation of Sustainable and Innovative Forms of Transportation Isabella Levin Scripps College Recommended Citation Levin, Isabella, "All Roads Lead to the Fair: How a 2022 Los Angeles World's Fair Would Accelerate the Implementation of Sustainable and Innovative Forms of Transportation" (2017). Scripps Senior Theses. 943. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/943 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Scripps Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scripps Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE FAIR: HOW A 2022 LOS ANGELES WORLD’S FAIR WOULD ACCELERATE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE AND INNOVATIVE FORMS OF TRANSPORTATION by ISABELLA LEVIN SUBMITTED TO SCRIPPS COLLEGE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS PROFESSOR CHAR MILLER PROFESSOR GEORGE GORSE DECEMBER 9, 2016 Levin 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With immense gratitude, I thank my thesis readers for their endless support; namely, Char Miller for his guidance and organization of my passions into a coherent and structured product, as well as George Gorse for his knowledge and expertise on World’s Fairs and Los Angeles that has continued to inspire me over the years. I would like to thank my colleagues at the Los Angeles World’s Fair: Jefferson Schierbeek, Marty Meisler, and Robin Shank.Their insight and support enriched my research of the Los Angeles World’s Fair with an up close and personal understanding. Many thanks are also due to the Hearst Senior Thesis Award and Scripps College’s Dean of Faculty, Gretchen Edwalds Gilbert, for providing me with the financial support to continue my research on transportation in Los Angeles. Lastly, I would like to express my profound appreciation for the family and friends who supported me throughout this entire journey.Their love and encouragement kept me going every step of the way. Levin 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 4 ​ Introduction 5 ​ Chapter 1: World’s Fair and their Legacies 13 London’s 1851 Great Exhibition 15 Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition 17 Paris’s 1900 Exposition Universelle 24 Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition 27 New York’s 1939-1940 World’s Fair 29 Seattle’s 1962 Century 21 Exhibition 33 Hannover’s Expo 2000 38 Onwards and Upwards 41 Chapter 2: Los Angeles’s Transportation History 44 Los Angeles’s Rail History 47 Los Angeles’s Transition Towards the Automobile 52 Negative Impacts of the Automobile 55 From Rail to Automobile and Back Again 63 Chapter 3: Transportation at the Los Angeles World’s Fair 73 Automated Vehicles 73 The Robotaxi 83 The Hyperloop 87 Advantages and Disadvantages of the Hyperloop 94 Conclusion 104 ​ Works Cited 107 ​ Levin 4 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the potential impact of a World’s Fair on urban mobility in Los Angeles County by 2022. A brief historical account of World’s Fairs, and their impact on technological innovations in transportation will be given in conjunction with the development of transportation in Los Angeles. These accounts will help to contextualize an analysis of current plans to provide Los Angeles with transportation solutions, in light of the oversaturated automobile landscape in place today. Specifically, my research has revealed that the further development of light-speed rail systems paired alongside a mass adoption of autonomous vehicles would both alleviate contemporary transportation issues across Los Angeles County and accommodate the audience of international spectators that future mega-events may attract. Particular attention is paid to the Los Angeles World’s Fair for its ability to galvanize the resources and support that these transportation innovations require. I therefore conclude that the Los Angeles World Fair should direct its focus principally in support of these aforementioned technologies, as opposed to other less feasible transportations solutions such as the Hyperloop. Levin 5 INTRODUCTION “The courage to think is the courage to imagine.” These were the words of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti at the plenary celebration for the Greenbuild Conference in Los Angeles, California, on October 2016. Garcetti’s words are quite fitting; as the city’s legendary Hollywood sign makes plainly visible, Los Angeles has no shortage of courage and imagination. Following the mayor’s speech was Lieutenant Governor to the State of California, Gavin Newsom. Newsom described the golden state as one of “dreamers and doers.” It is in this spirit that Angelenos have dreamt and envisioned the future City of Angels, one with light-speed rail systems, autonomous cars, and a “new high-speed ground transport system” commonly referred to as the Hyperloop (“Hyperloop”). Though critics may argue these futuristic technologies belong in a science-fiction film, they are in fact currently embedded in the proposed 2022 Los Angeles World's Fair. Planners hope to unveil Los Angeles as "The Connected City" by showcasing new possibilities for urban mobility moving forward (“About Us”). The Los Angeles World’s Fair, known as the LAWF, is a vision led by architects, engineers, urban planners, and venture capitalists to develop a decentralized international exposition stretching across 88 cities in Los Angeles County over a period of two years, from 2022 to 2024. I have had the privilege of working as Co-Lead of the Sustainability Flex Team for the LAWF over the past two years. The LAWF’s burgeoning plan would connect cities, cultures, and ideas “via transit-oriented structural innovation” (“Frequently Asked Questions”). Bringing people, places, and possibilities together with a “new multi-billion-dollar transit system,” the LAWF aims to celebrate “cultural diversity, technological innovation, and human accomplishment” (“Frequently Asked Questions”). Though Hollywood has become Levin 6 internationally renowned for its ability to transport viewers through visual images across a screen into unimaginable new worlds, the city at large must now demonstrate how it will provide its citizens with sustainable forms of mobility over the next few decades. To create this well connected version of Los Angeles, the LAWF will build upon the tradition of previous World’s Fairs. World Expositions, as they are known according to the Bureau International des Expositions, (BIE) are periodic celebrations typically showcasing the latest advances in arts, culture, and technology (De Groote). Founded in 1928, the BIE is the ​ ​ ​ ​ official organizing body that sanctions and recognizes World Expos. The BIE is responsible for choosing host cities, where “large, six-month Expos are organized every five years with one smaller, three-month version held in-between” (“World’s Fairs”). There are currently four different variations of these exhibitions, including “World Expos, International Specialized Expos, Horticultural Exhibitions and the Triennale di Milano. Each in its own field aims at educating the public, sharing innovation, promoting progress and allowing dialogue and shared experience” (“The Expos”). Capturing the imagination of millions of visitors, World’s Fairs enthrall, question, and redefine what is possible for urban society through daring innovation and engineering marvels. History professor and World’s Fair expert, Robert Rydell, in his 1984 book, All the ​ World’s A Fair, analyzes the origin of the term ‘fair’ derived from the Latin feria, meaning ‘holy ​ ​ ​ day.’ “America’s World’s Fairs resembled religious celebrations in their emphasis on symbols and ritualistic behavior.” These fairs “ritualistically affirmed fairgoers’ faith in American institutions and social organizations, evoked a community of shared experience, and formulated responses to questions about the ultimate destiny of mankind” (Rydell 3). Rydell views these Levin 7 international expositions as celebrations of “progress and technological advancement.” He believes expos showcase “the nation’s economic strength and artistic resources, highlighting new architectural forms and offering models for urban planning” (Rydell 2). The LAWF accordingly ​ ​ aims to advance this rich history of urban development with “a grand scale transition from a car-dependent culture to the widespread adoption of mass transit.” This would in large part be achieved both through the enhancement of Los Angeles’s public transportation system and through the implementation of technologically advanced forms of mobility, including light-speed rail, autonomous vehicles, and a Hyperloop system (“About Us”). These visions for a connected Los Angeles are far from the reality most Angelenos face in 2016. The City of Angels may be heralded for a lot of different reasons (e.g., Hollywood glamour, luxurious beaches, diverse cultures, multifaceted architecture, diverse landscapes;), however, one thing it has been notoriously and unapologetically known for is its horrific traffic and the health-compromising air pollution it creates. Ask anyone who has ever been on the 405 freeway during rush hour traffic what mobility looks like in Los Angeles and you will hear the most horrifying but accurate account of beeping horns in standstill traffic beside idling SUV’s, with no end in sight. The animosity which results from the neverending highway