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.
Thanks for reading, John! And many more thanks for offering up your thoughts. I know you've given a lot of attention to transportation matters over the years, so I appreciate you taking the time. 🙏🏼
And thank you for including the Slater piece. It is important folks read his point of view. It's equally important that people read the rebuttal written a year later by a public transit planning authority in Philadelphia.
Many of Slater's arguments, and those who favor his point of view, also often fall victim to one or many of Newman and Kenworthy's 10 Myths of Automobile Dependency.
And there have been many economists siding with Slater over the years, but people should check out this new book before assuming economic style reasoning necessarily leads to public good.
I maintain there are many tools necessary to craft the optimal route from A to B and that a country that prides itself on diversity and freedom of choice should offer safe and equitable choice between any of them.
And streetcar operators were not all good either. Chicago is a good case. Streetcar operators worked with developers to create rail lines to suburbs for wealthy elite. Some developers even started their own streetcar companies just to get people to their properties! Most of the polycentric mess of suburban sprawl in Chicago originated with the proliferation of streetcars!
I give mention to some of this in this piece from last year.
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.
Thanks for reading, John! And many more thanks for offering up your thoughts. I know you've given a lot of attention to transportation matters over the years, so I appreciate you taking the time. 🙏🏼
And thank you for including the Slater piece. It is important folks read his point of view. It's equally important that people read the rebuttal written a year later by a public transit planning authority in Philadelphia.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015048134814&view=1up&seq=21
Many of Slater's arguments, and those who favor his point of view, also often fall victim to one or many of Newman and Kenworthy's 10 Myths of Automobile Dependency.
https://www.academia.edu/64242207/The_ten_myths_of_automobile_dependence
And there have been many economists siding with Slater over the years, but people should check out this new book before assuming economic style reasoning necessarily leads to public good.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167381/thinking-like-an-economist
I maintain there are many tools necessary to craft the optimal route from A to B and that a country that prides itself on diversity and freedom of choice should offer safe and equitable choice between any of them.
And streetcar operators were not all good either. Chicago is a good case. Streetcar operators worked with developers to create rail lines to suburbs for wealthy elite. Some developers even started their own streetcar companies just to get people to their properties! Most of the polycentric mess of suburban sprawl in Chicago originated with the proliferation of streetcars!
I give mention to some of this in this piece from last year.
https://interplace.io/p/boomtown-maps#details