While I used to be all-in on the GM Streetcar Conspiracy, depicted in the popular Roger Rabbit movie, I've moderated my views based on other input. While there are several academic papers presenting the alternative, conspiracy-lite version of the 1930s-40s-50s demise of street railroads, a very readable historical account from Transportation Quarterly, Summer 1997, with footnotes, is posted at http://www.cliffslater.com/TQOrigin_all.pdf. A short version might go like this: American people could afford cars that provided quicker travel at more times of day to more destinations that streetcars could offer.
While I used to be all-in on the GM Streetcar Conspiracy, depicted in the popular Roger Rabbit movie, I've moderated my views based on other input. While there are several academic papers presenting the alternative, conspiracy-lite version of the 1930s-40s-50s demise of street railroads, a very readable historical account from Transportation Quarterly, Summer 1997, with footnotes, is posted at http://www.cliffslater.com/TQOrigin_all.pdf. A short version might go like this: American people could afford cars that provided quicker travel at more times of day to more destinations that streetcars could offer.