How California's streets were built for cars
1933
Congress creates the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation.
A federal agency that made long-term home loans to owners who couldn't get them elsewhere. From 1935 to 1940 it surveyed cities to judge the future value of their real estate, and mapped their neighborhoods. These are the 416 areas it drew in Los Angeles.
1938
The FHA writes down what protects a neighborhood.
The Federal Housing Administration's manual for insuring mortgages, on rating a location:
“A high speed traffic artery or a wide street parkway may prevent the expansion of inharmonious uses to a location on the opposite side of the street.”
The same paragraph counts “inharmonious racial groups” among the “adverse influences” a barrier keeps out.
1939
The HOLC grades Los Angeles.
Every area gets a letter: A, “Best”; B, “Still Desirable”; C, “Definitely Declining”; D, “Hazardous”. 57 areas are graded A and 71 are graded D.
1939–1968
71 areas are marked “Hazardous”.
These are the areas the HOLC graded D.
Courts stop enforcing racial covenants in 1948. Discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing is banned in 1968.
1940s
The first freeways.
First sections open: the Arroyo Seco Parkway (1940), the Hollywood Freeway (1940), the San Bernardino Freeway (1943), the Terminal Island Freeway (1948) and the Santa Ana Freeway (1949). Caltrans calls the Arroyo Seco Parkway California's first freeway.
In 1944 Congress calls for a national system of interstate highways, without yet paying for it.
Caltrans history, 1940s · Metro library, June 15 · LADOT · California Highways and Public Works, Sept–Oct 1948 · Metro library, April 4 · FHWA, Interstate history
1945–1963
The streetcars give way to buses.
In 1945 National City Lines buys the Los Angeles Railway; General Motors, Mack, oil and tire companies are among its stockholders. In 1949 a jury convicts the companies of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and supplies to the transit companies they controlled.
The last Red Car runs to Long Beach in 1961. In 1963 the last streetcar lines in Los Angeles become bus lines.
LA Metro library · Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearings, 1974, pp. 1871–1886 (govinfo) · LA Metro library, April 8 · LA Metro library, March 31
1950s
Washington pays for the Interstates.
In 1956 the Federal-Aid Highway Act sets the federal share of the Interstate system's cost at 90 percent, paid from a trust fund filled by fuel and vehicle taxes.
First sections open: the Harbor Freeway (1952), the Long Beach Freeway (1952), the Foothill Freeway (1955), the Golden State Freeway (1957) and the San Diego Freeway (1957).
FHWA, Interstate cost history · California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1963 · Metro library, December 10 · Metro library, October 28 · Metro library, September 6 · Metro library, March 29
1960s
6 more freeways.
First sections open: the Ventura Freeway (1960), the Santa Monica Freeway (1962), the Glendale Freeway (1962), the Antelope Valley Freeway (1963), the San Gabriel River Freeway (1964) and the Pomona Freeway (1965).
Metro library, April 5 · California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1963 · California Highways and Public Works, Sept–Oct 1963 · California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1965 · California Highways and Public Works, Nov–Dec 1965
1993
The Century Freeway.
Opened in 1993, “billed as the last new freeway in Los Angeles”.
Today
32 of the 71 “Hazardous” areas have a freeway through them.
Against 7 of the 57 areas graded A. An area counts from about 250 feet of a freeway. This shows where freeways run, not why each was routed there. In black, every freeway there today, including a few whose opening year we found no government source for.
1940s–60s
Boyle Heights: four freeways.
The HOLC graded area D53 D in 1939. Today I-5, I-10, US 101 and SR 60 run through it, 12.4 miles in all.
“Two freeways were built in the 1940's and two more in the early 1960's. As a result, Boyle Heights was segmented into four smaller areas and one large area.”
CalEnviroScreen puts its traffic near homes at the 80th percentile in California and its diesel exhaust at the 93rd.
1940–2023
Built for driving.
California’s first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, opens in 1940.
In 2023 Los Angeles City Planning counts 72% of the city’s land that allows housing as zoned for single-family homes only.
Until 2020 the state’s environmental reviews counted traffic delay as a project’s impact. Now they count the miles people drive.
Today 59.8% of Los Angeles's workers drive to work alone and 6.1% take transit (Census ACS, 2020–2024).
Caltrans history, 1940s · OPR Technical Advisory, December 2018 · LA City Planning
2020–2024
The state and Washington, in their own words.
“quite literally put up barriers, divided communities, and amplified racial inequities, particularly in our Black and Brown neighborhoods.”
Since 2021 federal grants pay to study and rebuild freeways that divide neighborhoods. In 2024 one went to East Los Angeles, which USDOT says “was divided by the construction of I-710 in the 1960s.”
Caltrans Equity Statement · Public Law 117-58, § 11509 (govinfo) · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2023
The grades, over today's streets
The HOLC's areas for 8 California cities, with today's freeways drawn dark. Tap an area for the freeways through it, who lives there and their incomes, CalEnviroScreen's traffic measure, and the crashes reported inside it: pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists hurt or killed (2021–2026), and everyone killed in any crash (2020–2024).
Where the freeways run now.
Every area the HOLC graded in 8 California cities, laid over today's freeways.
48%
of the 155 areas graded D, “Hazardous”, have a freeway through them today.
Each square is one area. Filled: a freeway runs through it.
11%
of the 109 areas graded A, “Best”, have a freeway through them today.
Each square is one area. Filled: a freeway runs through it.
Freeways are OpenStreetMap's motorways today; an area counts from about 250 feet of one. Where freeways are, not why each was routed there. All four grades, by land area
The same maps, seven more cities.
Fresno 1936
4 of 8 D areas with a freeway
Oakland 1937
7 of 20 D areas with a freeway
Sacramento 1937
4 of 7 D areas with a freeway
San Diego 1938
8 of 10 D areas with a freeway
San Francisco 1937
9 of 17 D areas with a freeway
San Jose 1937
6 of 11 D areas with a freeway
Stockton 1938
4 of 11 D areas with a freeway
Explore every area on the map, see crashes in Boyle Heights, or read the record below.
01
The maps that graded neighborhoods
In the 1930s two new federal agencies set the terms for home loans. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation mapped cities and graded their neighborhoods; the Federal Housing Administration wrote down how it rated a location for insuring a mortgage. California’s courts, voters and lawmakers then took up the same questions.
1933
The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation
Congress created the HOLC by the Home Owners’ Loan Act of 1933 to make “low interest long-term mortgage loans to homeowners unable to procure financing through normal channels.” Its records in the National Archives include a “HOLC City Survey File, 1935-40” and “City maps showing sought-after versus declining neighborhoods, and locations of black population, 1933-39.” These are the maps on this page.
June 13, 1933 · National Archives, Record Group 195
1934
The National Housing Act creates the FHA
The National Housing Act of 1934 created the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages made by approved lenders. HUD describes the act as “fundamentally changing the federal government’s role in housing.”
June 27, 1934 · HUD, FHA at 90 · HUD, FHA history
1938
The FHA’s Underwriting Manual on barriers and race
On rating a location, paragraph 935: “Natural or artificially established barriers will prove effective in protecting a neighborhood and the locations within it from adverse influences. Usually the protection from adverse influences afforded by these means includes prevention of the infiltration of business and industrial uses, lower class occupancy, and inharmonious racial groups.” It goes on: “A high speed traffic artery or a wide street parkway may prevent the expansion of inharmonious uses to a location on the opposite side of the street.” Among the deed restrictions it recommends, paragraph 980: “Prohibition of the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are intended.”
February 1938 revision · FHA Underwriting Manual, 1938 (HUD User)
1945
The Sugar Hill covenant case
White homeowners in West Adams Heights (“Sugar Hill”) sued their Black neighbors to enforce racial covenants and lost in Los Angeles Superior Court. Judge Thurmond Clarke: “the court is of the opinion that it is time that members of the Negro race are accorded without reservation and evasion the full rights guaranteed them under the 14th Amendment.”
1945 · Los Angeles · LA City Planning, African American history (SurveyLA)
1948
Shelley v. Kraemer
The Supreme Court: “We hold that in granting judicial enforcement of the restrictive agreements in these cases, the States have denied petitioners the equal protection of the laws.” Courts could no longer enforce racial covenants; the covenants themselves were not struck down.
May 3, 1948 · Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (Library of Congress)
1963
The Rumford Fair Housing Act
In the Supreme Court’s words, the Rumford Act was “prohibiting racial discriminations in the sale or rental of any private dwelling containing more than four units.”
1963 · California · Reitman v. Mulkey, 387 U.S. 369 (Library of Congress)
1964
Proposition 14
Voters added to the state constitution that no government in California may limit “the right of any person, who is willing or desires to sell, lease or rent any part or all of his real property, to decline to sell, lease or rent such property to such person or persons as he, in his absolute discretion, chooses.” It passed 4,526,460 to 2,395,747.
November 1964 · California · Reitman v. Mulkey (Library of Congress)
1967
Reitman v. Mulkey
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the California Supreme Court, which had struck down Proposition 14. The decision’s summary says the provision “authorizes racial discrimination in the housing market and establishes the right to discriminate as a basic state policy.”
May 29, 1967 · California · Reitman v. Mulkey (Library of Congress)
1968
The Fair Housing Act
Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 “prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and national origin.”
April 11, 1968 · HUD · Justice Department
02
Streetcars to buses
Los Angeles had two big streetcar systems: the Los Angeles Railway’s yellow cars in the city and Pacific Electric’s red cars between cities. Both were gone by 1963.
1945
National City Lines buys the Los Angeles Railway
From Metro’s library: “In 1945, the controlling interest in Los Angeles Railway was purchased from the Huntington estate by National City Lines … They renamed it Los Angeles Transit Lines, and at the end of World War II, they sought to substitute buses on most of the existing streetcar lines.” And: “General Motors, Mack Truck, oil and tire companies were among NCL’s stockholders.”
1945 · Los Angeles · LA Metro library
1947
The government charges National City Lines and its suppliers
The Justice Department charged National City Lines with General Motors, Firestone, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, Mack and others. In the Supreme Court’s words, “The basic charge” was conspiring “to acquire control of local transportation companies in numerous cities … and to restrain and monopolize interstate commerce in motorbusses, petroleum supplies, tires and tubes sold to those companies.” Forty-four cities were named, Los Angeles and Oakland among them.
April 1947 · United States v. National City Lines, 334 U.S. 573 (Library of Congress)
1949
The conviction
A jury found the companies guilty on one count, conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses, tires, tubes and petroleum products to the transit companies National City Lines controlled, and acquitted them on the count of conspiring to control those transit companies. The appeals court affirmed in 1951 (186 F.2d 562). The court records are reprinted in a 1974 Senate hearing.
1949; affirmed 1951 · Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearings, 1974, pp. 1871–1886 (govinfo)
1961
The last Red Car, Los Angeles to Long Beach
“The last Pacific Electric Railway streetcar (“Red Car”) runs between Los Angeles and Long Beach — both the first and last interurban passenger line of the former Pacific Electric.” Passenger trains came back to the same route in 1990.
April 8, 1961 · Los Angeles · LA Metro library, April 8
1963
The last streetcars in Los Angeles
“A fleet of 300 new SilverLiner coaches replace the two last remaining trolley coach lines and five remaining rail lines in Los Angeles.”
March 31, 1963 · Los Angeles · LA Metro library, March 31
03
Freeways through neighborhoods
Congress planned the Interstate system in 1944 and paid for it from 1956, 90 percent federal money from a trust fund filled by fuel and vehicle taxes. In their own documents, Los Angeles and the U.S. Department of Transportation describe the freeways built through California neighborhoods.
Laid over today's map, the HOLC's areas show where the freeways run now. 74 of the 155 areas graded D have a freeway through them, against 12 of the 109 graded A. By land, D areas hold about 7 times as many miles of freeway per square mile.
| HOLC grade | Areas | With a freeway through it today | Freeway miles per square mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| A “Best” | 109 | 12 (11%) | 0.12 (7 mi in 56 sq mi) |
| B “Still Desirable” | 273 | 50 (18%) | 0.24 (24 mi in 99 sq mi) |
| C “Definitely Declining” | 331 | 103 (31%) | 0.47 (97 mi in 209 sq mi) |
| D “Hazardous” | 155 | 74 (48%) | 0.79 (95 mi in 121 sq mi) |
All 868 graded areas in the 8 California cities the HOLC mapped. Freeways are OpenStreetMap's motorways today; a divided freeway counts once. An area counts as having a freeway through it from about 250 feet of one. This is where freeways run, not why each was routed there.
When Los Angeles's freeways opened
The year each one's first section opened to traffic, from Caltrans, LA Metro's library and LADOT. No government source we found dates the Artesia or Marina freeways.
| Freeway | First section | What the source says |
|---|---|---|
| Arroyo Seco Parkway SR 110 | 1940 | Dedicated December 30, 1940; through the four-level interchange in 1953. Caltrans history, 1940s · LADOT |
| Hollywood Freeway US 101 | 1940 | Cahuenga Pass in 1940; the last link in 1954. Metro library, June 15 · Metro library, April 15 |
| San Bernardino Freeway I-10 | 1943 | First section in 1943; through Los Angeles County in 1957. LADOT · California Highways and Public Works, May–June 1957 |
| Terminal Island Freeway SR 103 | 1948 | Completed as a freeway in 1948. California Highways and Public Works, Sept–Oct 1948 |
| Santa Ana Freeway I-5 | 1949 | First section, Soto Street to Eastman Avenue in Boyle Heights, April 4, 1949. Metro library, April 4 |
| Harbor Freeway I-110 | 1952 | First section in 1952; to San Pedro in 1962. California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1963 |
| Long Beach Freeway I-710 | 1952 | First section, Pacific Coast Highway to 223rd Street, December 1952. Metro library, December 10 |
| Foothill Freeway I-210 | 1955 | First unit in Altadena and Flintridge, 1955. Metro library, October 28 |
| Golden State Freeway I-5 | 1957 | First unit in 1957; continuous to the San Diego Freeway in 1963. Metro library, September 6 · California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1964 |
| San Diego Freeway I-405 | 1957 | First section in 1957; through the Sepulveda Pass in December 1962. Metro library, March 29 · Metro library, December 21 |
| Ventura Freeway US 101 / SR 134 | 1960 | Through the San Fernando Valley in 1960; to the Golden State Freeway in 1962. Metro library, April 5 |
| Santa Monica Freeway I-10 | 1962 | First sections in 1962; completed to Santa Monica in 1965–66. California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1963 · Metro library, January 5 |
| Glendale Freeway SR 2 | 1962 | Glendale Boulevard to Fletcher Drive, March 1962. California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1963 |
| Antelope Valley Freeway SR 14 | 1963 | First 16 miles dedicated August 1963. California Highways and Public Works, Sept–Oct 1963 |
| San Gabriel River Freeway I-605 | 1964 | First miles in June 1964; completed to the San Diego Freeway in 1966. California Highways and Public Works, Mar–Apr 1965 · California Highways and Public Works, Jan–Feb 1967 |
| Pomona Freeway SR 60 | 1965 | First unit, from the East Los Angeles Interchange, 1965. California Highways and Public Works, Nov–Dec 1965 |
| Century Freeway I-105 | 1993 | Opened in 1993, “billed as the last new freeway in Los Angeles”. Caltrans, historic transportation context, Appendix C |
1940
The Arroyo Seco Parkway
Caltrans: “The Arroyo-Seco Parkway, California and the US’ first freeway, was dedicated on December 30, 1940. This project marked the beginning of the freeway era in the Golden State.”
December 30, 1940 · Los Angeles · Caltrans history, 1940s
1944
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944
The act “called for designation of a National System of Interstate Highways, to include up to 40,000 miles.” FHWA notes that “neither the 1944 act nor later legislation in the 1940’s authorized funds specifically for the Interstate System.”
December 20, 1944 · FHWA, Interstate history · 58 Stat. 838 (govinfo)
1947
The Collier-Burns Act
Caltrans: the act “provided $76 million annually for new highway construction. Gas and diesel taxes were raised by 1-1/2 cents a gallon and driver license and registration fees were increased.”
1947 · California · Caltrans history, 1940s
1956
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956
The act “set the Federal Government’s share of project cost at 90 percent,” and its Title II “created the Highway Trust Fund as a dedicated source for the Interstate System,” filled by federal fuel and vehicle taxes.
June 29, 1956 · FHWA, Interstate cost history · U.S. Senate history
1998
Los Angeles on Boyle Heights’ four freeways
The city’s Boyle Heights Community Plan: “the construction of four major freeways took place. Two freeways were built in the 1940’s and two more in the early 1960’s. As a result, Boyle Heights was segmented into four smaller areas and one large area.”
Adopted November 10, 1998 · Los Angeles · Boyle Heights Community Plan (Metro library)
2023
USDOT on I-980 in West Oakland
“The I-980 freeway divides disadvantaged communities in West Oakland from downtown Oakland.” “Construction of the project resulted in the loss of 503 homes, 22 businesses, and four churches – almost all of which belonged to disadvantaged communities.” Caltrans received $680,000 to study what to do with it.
February 2023 award · Oakland · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2022 · Caltrans copy
2023
USDOT on Shoreline Drive in Long Beach
“Shoreline Drive was historically part of California’s interstate freeway network (as I-710), a post-World War II “urban renewal” project, which demolished the working-class Magnolia and West Beach neighborhoods, removing homes and businesses and replacing them with the existing divided road that operates at highway speeds.” Long Beach received $30 million to rebuild it.
February 2023 award · Long Beach · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2022 · Caltrans copy
2023
USDOT on the SR-710 stub in Pasadena
“From the 1960s onward, targeted investments to increase freeway size, connection, and access ultimately began displacing thriving and mixed-income communities of color in Northwest Pasadena.”
February 2023 award · Pasadena · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2022 · Caltrans copy
2023
USDOT on SR 99 in Fresno
“The construction of California State Route 99 ushered in a period of sharp decline for the Jane Addams Neighborhood.”
February 2023 award · Fresno · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2022 · Caltrans copy
2024
USDOT on I-710 and SR-60 in East Los Angeles
“The East L.A. neighborhood was divided by the construction of I-710 in the 1960s.” And: “The construction of SR-60 (Pomona Freeway) divided the community in the 1960s, separating Belvedere Park into northern and southern halves.”
March 2024 award · Los Angeles County · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2023
2024
USDOT on I-5 and the Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan
“Interstate 5 bisects the Barrio Logan and Logan Heights communities, and the I-5/SR 75 interchange and Coronado Bridge further dissects Barrio Logan on the west side of I-5.” SANDAG received $2 million to study lids over the freeway.
March 2024 award · San Diego · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2023
2024
USDOT on US 101 in Hollywood
From the project summary USDOT published: “US 101 is an open-air below grade eight lane limited access freeway that transformed the landscape by replacing the small middle-class homes, duplexes, and bungalow courts with a concrete trench separating low-income and middle-class families.” $3.6 million went to planning a park over it.
March 2024 award · Los Angeles · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2023
2024
USDOT on SR-91 in North Long Beach
From the project summary USDOT published: “SR-91 bisects North Long Beach, a community that is home to roughly 30,000 residents who are primarily low-income and people of color. The freeway has served as a physical barrier for decades.” Long Beach received $1.2 million to plan a loop of paths and parks across it.
March 2024 award · Long Beach · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2023
2024
USDOT on the Geary expressway in San Francisco
From the project summary USDOT published: “Geary has an underpass at Fillmore that was constructed in 1961 as an ‘urban renewal’ expressway for commuters to bypass this area and quickly travel downtown. The expressway project widened Geary and decimated existing housing, displacing Black, Asian, and Jewish communities, and creating a division between the Japantown/Fillmore neighborhoods.” San Francisco received $2 million to study it.
March 2024 award · San Francisco · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2023
2024
USDOT on the Sacramento region
The Sacramento Area Council of Governments received $22.5 million for ten communities that, in the summary USDOT published, “share the challenge of high volume, autocentric facilities that bisect existing neighborhoods and limit both economic and transportation mobility.”
March 2024 award · Sacramento · USDOT award fact sheets, FY 2023
04
Why so much driving
Freeways are one part of the record. Zoning, parking rules and the way environmental reviews measured traffic decide what can be built where, and since 2008 California has changed several of those rules. The state’s air board reports that driving per person is still rising.
1938
The FHA manual on new and older neighborhoods
The manual told appraisers that “Successful new areas are recognized as the best mortgage lending areas” (paragraph 976), and that “A location with harmonious surroundings will not decline at the same rate as will a location in a neighborhood containing old structures mixed with new” (909).
February 1938 · FHA Underwriting Manual, 1938 (HUD User)
1938
The FHA manual on cars
The manual says “The development of modern transportation systems, extensions of, and changes in the routes of transportation lines within individual communities, and the making available of automobiles to families of comparatively low purchasing power, have promoted the development of new residential districts and greatly speeded the rate of declines in the desirability and value of the established ones” (paragraph 1379). It did not favor places reached only by car: “Reliance upon private automobiles alone cannot be considered adequate transportation for any except the higher income groups, and even in these groups suitable public transportation facilities greatly increase the desirability of the area” (983).
February 1938 · FHA Underwriting Manual, 1938 (HUD User)
1983
A transit account in the Highway Trust Fund
The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 raised the federal gas tax by 5 cents and, in FHWA’s words, “created a Mass Transit Account in the Highway Trust Fund with 1 cent of the gas tax increase reserved for capital mass transit projects.” Of today’s 18.4-cent federal gas tax, 15.44 cents go to the Highway Account and 2.86 cents to the Mass Transit Account.
Signed January 6, 1983 · FHWA, 1983 · FHWA Highway Statistics 2024, Table FE-21B
2008
SB 375: regional targets for driving emissions
Each metropolitan region must adopt a “sustainable communities strategy” in its transportation plan, and the Air Resources Board sets each region “greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for the automobile and light truck sector for 2020 and 2035.”
September 30, 2008 · California · SB 375 (2008)
2013
SB 743: traffic delay stops counting as an environmental impact
The Legislature found that environmental reviews of transportation “typically study changes in automobile delay,” and provided that, once new guidelines were adopted, “automobile delay, as described solely by level of service or similar measures of vehicular capacity or traffic congestion shall not be considered a significant impact on the environment.”
September 27, 2013 · California · SB 743 (2013)
2018
From level of service to miles driven
The new CEQA Guidelines section 15064.3: “Generally, vehicle miles traveled is the most appropriate measure of transportation impacts,” and “a project’s effect on automobile delay shall not constitute a significant environmental impact.” It applied statewide from July 1, 2020.
December 2018; statewide from July 1, 2020 · California · OPR Technical Advisory, December 2018 · CEQA Guidelines, 2018 text
2021
SB 9: duplexes and lot splits on single-family lots
Cities must approve, without a hearing, up to two homes on a lot in a single-family zone, and an “urban lot split” that meets the law’s conditions. HCD: “SB 9 facilitates the creation of up to two primary housing units on a parcel typically used for one single-family home.”
September 16, 2021 · California · SB 9 (2021) · HCD fact sheet
2022
AB 2097: no parking minimums near major transit
“A public agency shall not impose or enforce any minimum automobile parking requirement on a residential, commercial, or other development project if the project is located within one-half mile of public transit,” meaning a major transit stop, with limited exceptions.
September 22, 2022 · California · AB 2097 (2022) · LA City Planning
2022
AB 2147: crossing outside a crosswalk
Police may no longer stop someone on foot for crossing outside a crosswalk “unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of a collision with a moving vehicle or other device moving exclusively by human power.” San Diego’s police told officers the “Freedom to Walk Act” “does not legalize ‘jaywalking.’”
September 30, 2022; in effect January 1, 2023 · California · AB 2147 (2022) · San Diego Police training bulletin
2023
Most of Los Angeles’s housing land is single-family only
Los Angeles City Planning: “In Los Angeles, 72% of land permitting residential uses is restricted to the development of single-family housing.”
October 2023 · Los Angeles · LA City Planning
2023
The air board: driving per person still rising
The California Air Resources Board’s 2022 progress report: “California is still not reducing GHG emissions from personal vehicle travel as needed to meet climate commitments and as targeted under SB 375. Per capita GHG emissions and per capita VMT continued to increase.” It also found that “In 2019, around 75 percent of California’s commuters drove alone to work.”
June 2023 · California · CARB 2022 SB 150 Progress Report
2024
How much California drives
Vehicles traveled 325,959 million miles on California roads in 2024, against 340,836 million in 2019 (FHWA, Highway Statistics, Table VM-2).
2024 · California · FHWA Table VM-2, 2024 · FHWA Table VM-2, 2019
05
Who pays for streets
Property taxes in California are capped by Proposition 13, and most of what they raise goes to schools. City streets are paid from several sources: state fuel taxes, federal money and cities’ own funds.
1978
Proposition 13
“Proposition 13 rolled back most local real property, or real estate, assessments to 1975 market value levels, limited the property tax rate to 1 percent plus the rate necessary to fund local voter-approved bonded indebtedness, and limited future property tax increases.” A property’s taxable value rises by at most 2 percent a year until it is sold.
June 6, 1978 · California · Board of Equalization, Publication 29 · Legislative Analyst’s Office
2017
What paid for local streets
The State Controller counted about $6.8 billion for city and county streets and roads: 23 percent from the state, 11 percent federal and 66 percent local. For city streets, “The majority of state funding came from money allocated from the Highway Users Tax Fund. Most of the local revenue came from local general fund money,” 29 percent of all money for city streets. Property tax revenue goes mostly to schools: 53 percent in 2022-23, with 12 percent to cities.
Fiscal year 2016-17 · California · State Controller, Streets and Roads 2016-17 · Board of Equalization, Publication 29
2017
SB 1 road repair taxes
The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 raised the gasoline tax by 12 cents a gallon, indexed to inflation, and added other fuel and vehicle taxes and fees. Its Local Streets and Roads Program “provided nearly $1.5 billion to cities and counties in fiscal year 2022–23.”
April 2017 · California · California State Auditor, Report 2023-124
06
What’s being done now
Since 2020 Caltrans and the federal government have described the harm in their own words, and both now fund studies and projects to reconnect neighborhoods that freeways divided.
2020
Caltrans’ equity statement
Caltrans “acknowledges that communities of color and under-served communities experienced fewer benefits and a greater share of negative impacts associated with our state’s transportation system,” and that some of these disparities reflect decisions that “quite literally put up barriers, divided communities, and amplified racial inequities, particularly in our Black and Brown neighborhoods.” The quoted words are the state Transportation Secretary’s.
December 10, 2020 · California · Caltrans Equity Statement
2021
The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds studies and construction “to remove, retrofit, or mitigate” a “highway or other transportation facility that creates a barrier to community connectivity, including barriers to mobility, access, or economic development, due to high speeds, grade separations, or other design factors.” Caltrans: “$1 billion over the next 5 years.”
November 15, 2021 · Public Law 117-58, § 11509 (govinfo) · Caltrans
2022
Highways to Boulevards
Caltrans’ pilot “was established to plan for and fund the conversion of key underutilized highways in the State into multi-modal corridors to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure,” with $149 million in the 2022-23 budget.
2022-23 state budget · California · Caltrans · Caltrans FAQ
2024
The first Highways to Boulevards places
The state picked Arcata, South San Francisco and southeast San Diego with National City, “communities historically divided by the construction of highways.” Caltrans’ director: “Caltrans will work hand-in-hand with community-based partners and cities on solutions to reconnect neighborhoods that have been split by highway projects and help heal past harms.”
March 12, 2024 · California · Governor of California
What this page leaves out
The record below each chapter is a selection, not every law, case or decision, and it covers California. It says what each document says; where a source gives a reason for a decision, the entry quotes it, and where it doesn't, the page doesn't guess one.
The crash counts on the map are for one area at a time. With no counts of how many people walk, ride or drive in each area, comparing areas by crashes would mostly measure how busy they are, so the page doesn't. If you know of a record that belongs here, or find something wrong, tell us on the contact page and include the source.
Common questions
- What were the HOLC maps?
- Between 1935 and 1940 the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, a federal agency, graded neighborhoods in American cities from A ("Best") to D ("Hazardous") for mortgage lending. 8 California cities were mapped: Fresno (1936), Los Angeles (1939), Oakland (1937), Sacramento (1937), San Diego (1938), San Francisco (1937), San Jose (1937), Stockton (1938). The original maps are in the National Archives (Record Group 195); the outlines on this page are Mapping Inequality's digitized copies.
- Do freeways run through the areas the HOLC graded D?
- In 74 of the 155 California areas graded D (48%), a freeway runs through the area today, against 12 of the 109 graded A (11%). By land, that is 0.79 miles of freeway per square mile in D areas and 0.12 in A areas, from OpenStreetMap. It shows where freeways are, not why each was routed there.
- Does this page say how dangerous a neighborhood is?
- No. The map counts the crashes reported inside each area, one area at a time. There are no counts of how many people walk, bike or drive in each area, so the counts are not rates and the page does not compare areas or grades by them.
- Why do Californians drive so much?
- This page lists the records, not a single cause. In 2019 about 75% of California commuters drove alone to work, and driving per person kept rising, by the California Air Resources Board’s count. Los Angeles City Planning says 72% of the city’s land that allows housing is limited to single-family homes. Until 2020, California’s environmental reviews counted traffic delay as a project’s impact; now they count vehicle miles traveled. Since 2021 state law allows duplexes on most single-family lots (SB 9) and bars parking minimums near major transit (AB 2097).
- Are California streets paid for by property taxes?
- The State Controller’s figures don’t say how much. For the 2016-17 fiscal year, the State Controller counted about $6.8 billion for city and county streets and roads: 23% from the state, 11% federal and 66% local. For city streets, most local money came from cities’ general funds (29% of all money for city streets), and the Controller doesn’t say which taxes that money came from. Property tax revenue goes mostly to schools: 53% in 2022-23, with 12% to cities (Board of Equalization).
Sources: each entry links its own, all government. HOLC outlines: Mapping Inequality (University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab, CC BY-NC 2.5), from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation residential security maps, National Archives, Record Group 195. Crashes: CCRS with NHTSA FARS deaths merged in (2021–2026); all deaths: FARS (2020–2024). Freeways: OpenStreetMap. Traffic and diesel: CalEnviroScreen 4.0, OEHHA (October 2021). Residents by race and ethnicity, poverty and income: Census ACS 2020–2024 (tables B03002, B17001 and B19013), by tract. Updated 2026-10-20. How the data works.