Transit Vanity Projects in Los Angeles
Location
PANEL: A Sociological Look into Communities through Trans Experiences, Transit, and Attitudes Towards Marriage
CELA Moffett
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-26-2024 10:00 AM
End Date
4-26-2024 11:00 AM
Abstract
Focusing on Los Angeles, this paper introduces the idea of “transit vanity projects” as a new way of understanding the relationship between space and social (in)justice. It proposes five qualities that define a transit vanity project: they are primarily focused on their stylistic quality; they are functionally unnecessary; they are isolated and disconnected from other transit; they serve a small, bounded population; they reflect and reproduce a selective understanding of the past or future. The paper contrasts the case studies of The Getty Tram, The Grove Trolley, and the Angel’s Flight Funicular with the embodied realities of using public transit in LA. It is based upon 3 weeks spent in Los Angeles relying only on public transit, a total of 75 hours on the bus and train. The resulting ethnographic observations provided me a first-hand understanding of how the public transportation services upon which poor and working-class Angelenos depend differ from transit vanity projects. The paper's analysis draws upon work done in the field spatial justice studies, and specifically upon Edward Soja’s 2010 book Seeking Spatial Justice. Spatial justice, in this context, refers to the principle that everyone has a right to safe and reliable transportation. The paper analyzes transit projects on a continuum from brutal or realistic necessity to vanity transit, and explains how these opposing approaches towards transit development should be recognized in future transit planning in order to create more equitable public transit.
Keywords:
Public transit, Spatial justice, Urban sociology
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Luca, "Transit Vanity Projects in Los Angeles" (2024). Research Symposium. 23.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2024/presentations/23
Major
Sociology
Award
The Jerome Davis Award
Project Mentor(s)
Alicia Smith-Tran, Sociology
Joshua Davidson, Statistics and Data Science
Greggor Mattson, Sociology
2024
Transit Vanity Projects in Los Angeles
PANEL: A Sociological Look into Communities through Trans Experiences, Transit, and Attitudes Towards Marriage
CELA Moffett
Focusing on Los Angeles, this paper introduces the idea of “transit vanity projects” as a new way of understanding the relationship between space and social (in)justice. It proposes five qualities that define a transit vanity project: they are primarily focused on their stylistic quality; they are functionally unnecessary; they are isolated and disconnected from other transit; they serve a small, bounded population; they reflect and reproduce a selective understanding of the past or future. The paper contrasts the case studies of The Getty Tram, The Grove Trolley, and the Angel’s Flight Funicular with the embodied realities of using public transit in LA. It is based upon 3 weeks spent in Los Angeles relying only on public transit, a total of 75 hours on the bus and train. The resulting ethnographic observations provided me a first-hand understanding of how the public transportation services upon which poor and working-class Angelenos depend differ from transit vanity projects. The paper's analysis draws upon work done in the field spatial justice studies, and specifically upon Edward Soja’s 2010 book Seeking Spatial Justice. Spatial justice, in this context, refers to the principle that everyone has a right to safe and reliable transportation. The paper analyzes transit projects on a continuum from brutal or realistic necessity to vanity transit, and explains how these opposing approaches towards transit development should be recognized in future transit planning in order to create more equitable public transit.
