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> now can't comprehend how the generation before him got around. The generation before him _didn’t_ get around, relatively speaking. Widespread use of the auto
by cnasc 7y ago
> now can't comprehend how the generation before him got around.
The generation before him _didn’t_ get around, relatively speaking. Widespread use of the automobile changed transportation patterns dramatically.
- andrewem 7y agoThe automobile also changed land use patterns dramatically, and the truism is that transportation is land use. See eg Cleveland, Ohio, which now has roughly the same population as it did in I think 1940, but takes something like 4 times the land. So people in 1900 didn't have to travel as much to access a similar amount of opportunity, because things were closer together.
- Gibbon1 7y agoI remember some pictures of Pittsburgh from the 1940's. With the steel mills belching smoke. You can imagine why people fled to the Suburbs. Seems like considering environmental regulations and the resulting clean up that that was ultimately a mistake.
- paulcole 7y agoYep, look at the incredibly limited streetcar and trolley system in Portland in the early 1900s. Really wonder how people survived. http://myplace.frontier.com/~trolley503/HistMaps.html http://myplace.frontier.com/~trolley503/HistMaps.html
- Gibbon1 7y agoA friend found an old San Francisco bus schedule from the 1920s. I just remember it was faster to get from downtown to the Outer Richmond in 1925 by bus than it now. And actually faster than it is by car too. Also remember San Francisco to Yosemite was I think 6-7 hours by train at one time.
- smileysteve 7y agoTrains, busses, and street cars were much more common in my city until the 50s. Every major town around me (within 4 hours), and my city was established by because they were a rail stop. I feel this is most pronounced when I go to the mountains 2 hours North; which was a popular summer destination at the turn of the 20th century to the mid century. Now it's a long drive away and no longer has the visitors it used to have.
- asdff 7y agoThe streetcar to longbeach was faster in 1925 than the light rail train following the same right of way today. The redcar in LA county was larger than the nyc subway system today. Ripped out 60 years ago and only now are the same right of ways being reconstructed at the cost of billions.