Brian D. Taylor, Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy and a Research Fellow in the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin, was a guest on The Climate Dispatch, a podcast launched by the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter. Episode 5 focused on how Los Angeles became the car-dependent city it is today as well as how the city could be better planned and built to serve people and promote a healthier environment. Taylor explained how cities, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York grew at various stages in their transportation evolution, often developing around the primary means of getting around, from foot traffic to trains and automobiles. “As we started to move out and use public transit, the city started to move out as well and grow. Rail transit often caused cities to develop in sort of a starfish pattern,” he said. “And then, as the automobile became the dominant mode, we saw more sprawling lower density development.”