Oddbean new post about login | logout What happened? In the 1920s, cars really starting clogged the streets and highways, and the streetcars and interurbans, from being quick and efficient, became the most sluggish things on the road. GM and motordom hurried things along by promoting "bustitution" of rail. https://cdn.masto.host/urbanistssocial/media_attachments/files/111/059/697/046/895/553/original/28d6bc246d62c1e8.jpg
The rest is...history. https://cdn.masto.host/urbanistssocial/media_attachments/files/111/059/698/995/052/996/original/f56f2261147c8f0c.jpg
dig deeper into the disappearance of streetcars from our streetscape—including the "Roger Rabbit theory," which holds that GM, Firestone, and other conspirators caused the tracks to be torn up. You can read it in my #Straphanger dispatch: https://straphanger.substack.com/p/the-roger-rabbit-theory https://cdn.masto.host/urbanistssocial/media_attachments/files/111/059/701/309/465/888/original/1003f04b3d16f9e0.jpg
@20976234 Great read. Any other books on the subject you would recommend?
@ac22e2cc @20976234 Who killed the electric car also has a chapter about this. Bus manufacturers, tyre companies and oil companies teamed up to off to take over the street cars from local government to save them money. They would run the streecars for a year or two, declare the routes were not profitable and put stinking bumpy buses on that noone enjoyed. Then the bus company would only buy its oil and tyres etc from the companies in the monopoly.
@ac22e2cc Hard to find, but Ride the Big Red Cars by Spencer Crump is the classic on the subject
@20976234 Electric street cars are part of the Metro Boston MBTA. One line, the Mattapan Extension, runs cars similar to those pictured. The other 5 Green Line routes run modern light rail vehicles. I believe the vintage cars now in use were bought from Philadelphia, decades ago.
