[History] Death of US streetcars

[LockH]

"The real story behind the demise of America's once-mighty streetcars". Perhaps a new perspective on that bit of transportation history.
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/7/8562007/streetcar-history-demise

Final paragraph

So what killed the streetcar? The simplest answer is that it couldn't compete with the car — on an extremely uneven playing field.

 

[wineboyrider]

Used to have in El Paso that ran through the streets of Juarez, Mexico....

 

[LockH]

Yah Mon. From that article:

Back in the 1920s, most American city-dwellers took public transportation to work every day.

There were 17,000 miles of streetcar lines across the country, running through virtually every major American city. That included cities we don't think of as hubs for mass transit today: Atlanta, Raleigh, and Los Angeles.

 

[wineboyrider]

What was unique about it was that it went in between two countries without a border control....LOL Juarez ad El Paso are essentially sister cities.

 

[The fingers]

I remember dad used to cuss at them, while driving our '55 Pontiac station wagon down Long Beach Blvd. This was back in the days of 17 cents a gallon gasoline before the freeways were built. I never rode on one, but I did ride on a Cable Car in San Francisco once. We usually caught a bus at the stop a block from the house which cost 21 cents to go to the beach or downtown. There weren't many left turn lanes or traffic signals then, just 4-way stop signs at major intersections, which really backed up arterial traffic during rush hour.

 

[Hillhater]

I. Have litterally just stepped off one here in Melbourne ( called trams here) .
And yes they are a great form of city transport..IF ..the city islaid out with them in mind originally..IE streets wide enough to allow trams in the middlee and car/cycle/ foot traffic still afound them.
Many citys do not have the wide streets to facilitate trams now.
Sydney used to have many trams, but took most of them out in the '50's ,...now they are trying to reinstall some again ! ....thats a bad decision as the city has been developed around road transport for service deliveries etc and they have to rip up the streets to reinstall the rails etc.

 

[The fingers]

Here's and old photo of how it was back in the day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/...VU66-716mWC-6gdfd-ppFwAY-oMg6b1-dM6462-ntTLpM

 

[LockH]

^^ Hehe. In foreground, one streetcar and one truck. And a whole bunch of cars... Middle ground, another streetcar... and a whole bunch more cars. And so it goes... Guessing those streetcars didn't take up as many square feet per passenger as the automobiles did. (Park in less space also.)

 

[dingoEsride]

What better way to move the masses and keep smog out of the cities, I'll use public transport or bike to city over driving for ease, here in my city of Perth w aussie we used electric trams and trolly buses



http://www.pets.org.au/pets10pt.html

All gone now what a shame

 

[LockH]

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