Dating to 1947, this silent film contains footage of transit and passenger buses in Southern California. Buses seen in the film include Santa Fe Railroad livery (:33), Greyhound (10:43), Pacific Electric (12:22), Los Angeles Railway (13;13 — note the trolley cars at the crossing!), and at (11:35) the Santa Monica Bus Lines (here seen operating on Pico Blvd near The Mint nightclub). It’s not entirely clear what the purpose of this film was — possibly it was used for driver training, or as a tool to confirm that drivers were complying with speed limits. (Note that the top portion of the screen has a speedometer which indicates the speed of the chase car.)

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com