It is a conspiracy story that tells itself. There is good and bad. However, I think the demise of streetcars needs to be seen in the light of the demise of tra

It is a conspiracy story that tells itself. There is good and bad. However, I think the demise of streetcars needs to be seen in the light of the demise of trams in the UK. We got rid of trams in the UK but General Motors were not to blame. However, the costs of rails in the road instead of rubber wheels and then diesel sealed the deal. The trams went to trolleybus services and they became bus services, that were not necessarily as frequent but had route flexibility that the trams and trolleybus never had. People overwhelmingly chose the car over the tram in the UK, regardless of lobbying, people worked out that they wanted a car. The outcome was inevitable. But would the outcome have been inevitable in the US where towns developed along streetcar routes? Would American towns have kept the streetcars where British cities, with wiggly roads, would opt for the trolleybus? The conspiracy never gave us a chance to find out.