See the documentary -- Taken for A Ride -- shown on PBS a couple of years ago.
There is an analogy in the disappearance of transit to the desire on the
part of many in the electric de-regulation battle -- to "get off the grid" and
away from the big bad monopolies. The grid is a community resource, as
transit was, and as the more affluent left transit for the private auto, so
too do many envision the affluent leaving the electric grid for private
generation. Will the grid wither like transit?
Gene Coyle
Jim Devine wrote:
> Peter wrote:
> >There is evidence that General Motors conspired to destroy dozens of
> public transit systems in the 1930's and '40s, ...<
>
> I don't know about other cities, but GM and others definitely conspired to
> destroy the "Red Line" trolley system in Los Angeles. In fact, they
> succeeded in doing so, making LA into Car Heaven (complete with the
> Peterson Automobile Museum, a temple for worshipping cars). I have a map of
> the old Red Line system on my office wall: where once there were trolleys,
> there are now often freeways, often parallel to the Red Lines.
>
> Even though this conspiracy shows up in the film "who framed Roger
> Rabbit?," we should not rely on this conspiracy theory alone. In addition,
> the upper-class (and to a lesser extent, middle-class) whites who ran Los
> Angeles in those days had given up on the Red Cars. The trolley system
> needed a lot of investment in order to make up for normal wear and tear. In
> addition, investment was needed to deal with the fact that the trolleys
> conflicted with the cars at large number of crossings -- and the period
> after World War II was an era when people were in love with their cars (if
> they could afford them). In a period of pro-car and laissez-faire sentiment
> among those with political influence, this investment was not done.
>
> It wasn't just the GM conspiracy. It was also that the politically-relevant
> public rolled over and played dead.
>
> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &
> http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
