Moving San Francisco (2021)

From the city's unique cable cars of the 19th century which conquered impossible hills, to the groundbreaking effort to introduce a city-owned transit authority (the first in the nation), to the current wave of experimentation with ride-sharing companies, autonomous vehicles, and car-free pedestrian zones, MOVING SAN FRANCISCO reveals some of the most compelling and surprising examples of the inextricable link between a city's transit and the lives of its inhabitants. Author/historian Gary Kamiya hosts this eye-opening look at the city's transit past and future, connecting the lessons of history to the challenges every modern city faces today: issues of transit equity (who gets to ride?) and climate impact loom ever larger, while the COVID-19 pandemic places the very future of public transit in question. Segments include the little-known story of Mary Ellen Pleasant (19th-century African American civil rights pioneer who sued a San Francisco trolley company for discrimination 90 years before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycotts); the building of the Mission Plank Road, the region's first transportation infrastructure project; the 1950's Freeway Revolt; today's efforts to correct environmental and racial injustices in transit planning; and how autonomous vehicles might impact the roadways of tomorrow.