Los Angeles Seen Through Electronic Maps

Remember before the internet, smart phones and GPS, when we used to rely so much on maps? People still use paper maps to navigate the American freeway system. And those without iPhones use paper maps to navigate unfamiliar cities (although print-outs from google maps are popular in that context).

Electronic maps on the internet have become a new format for this age-old medium. They combine a dense and useful presentation of geographical information with the ability to move further into this information. The flexibility of the internet lets us quickly zoom-in or link-though to  expand our focus of interest.

Here are some of my favorite internet maps of Los Angeles:

Roadside America

The roadsideamerica.com website collects information about structures in the wonderful genre of roadside architecture. Los Angeles, which grew so much in the 50′s and has such a strong connection to the automobile, is rich in this respect. There are lovely mid-century signs, oddball buildings shaped like donuts or coffeepots, and all sorts of other architectural oddities designed to attract our attention from our motor vehicles.  This map (link through the title above)  gives the location of tons and tons of this stuff. After clicking on individual site, you can use their trip builder or you can “right click” on the  green “more. . .” to open photos and info in another tab if you are just browsing.   http://www.agilitynut.com/roadside.html also has lots of great images and information.

Randy's Donuts at La Cienaga and Manchester

Taurich’s Hiking Map

This map (link through the title above) is clearly a labor of love.  Whoever this person is, they have done a great job of making a ton of hiking info easily accesible in a google maps format. Just click on the “easy,” “medium,” or “hard” button and then click through if you want more info about a particular hike.

Take a hike!

Sigalert

This site gets traffic info directly from the city and maps it in an easy to read format. (This data comes from over 50,000 buried “loop detectors” that sense the metal in cars and 700 cameras that monitor the roads). If you are planning on driving anywhere during rush hour, this map can save you hours of sitting in traffic. The site is named after Loyd C. “Sig” Sigmon, who invented a device that would alert radio broadcasters to traffic situations in the 50′s. The “traffic” button in google maps gives you basically the same information; at first the interface on google maps was better but sigalert got the idea and updated their site to be just as easy to use. I trust sigalert a little more just because they are the primary source.

Slowly heading towards the Newhall Pass

Project Languages

This map is not nearly as dense the other ones listed above but it seems like a lot of work went into it so I am including it here. Los Angeles is a real melting pot. In the next century the whole country will become more like Los Angeles, with a white minority and a diverse population.

May Day March

Those are my highlights, but it really does not stop there.  Here is a collection of Los Angeles Metro maps and some Art Walking Tours (mostly in pdf format) to get you started.. There are ton of Los Angeles maps out there on the web. Of course, getting lost has its perks too.

[Photos courtesy of jondoeforty1, tobo, respres and Jimmy Jazz (from E.A.P.)]