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Many cities had "streetcar suburbs", developments on the fringes of town serviced by street cars that took people to work. Sadly, they were largely decommissio

Many cities had "streetcar suburbs", developments on the fringes of town serviced by street cars that took people to work. Sadly, they were largely decommissioned and replaced with buses or nothing. We badly need to get more trains moving through American cities. I'd prefer grade separated, but honestly even if we had streetcars running in from all the suburbs that'd be pretty great. It's also worth mentioning the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_con... There's pretty good incentive to see streetcars removed if you are a car company...

jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
My town is famous for being a city that feels like a bunch of neighborhoods. Nearly all of those iconic neighborhoods are along the historic street car routes, that were dismantled in the 30s and 40s. I won't claim the street cars were perfect, but there is a lot of merit to the idea that they were replaced by an inferior solution due to the prevailing winds of the moment. What I find more interesting is the street car lines had such a dramatic impact that now 100 years later they're still defining the shape of the city.
- IshKebab 4y ago
  > My town is famous for being a city that feels like a bunch of neighborhoods. Ha, I think everywhere I've lived has described itself like this. Maybe it's less common in the US because you don't have cities swallowing up villages.
  - jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
    Yeah, US city planning is unfortunately pretty dismal. My town has a reputation for being better than most, but truth is we've grown so fast the last 2 decades our transit system is overwhelmed now too. Most US cities are dominated by suburban sprawl, and where there's pretty much nothing like a walkable neighborhood high street.
throw0101a 4y ago
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0
m0llusk 4y ago
This always comes up, but is not accurate. Streetcars were never greatly loved. They were boiling hot in the summer, freezing in winter, the ride was jarring, and they were crowded with all manner of people. During the war maintenance was deferred to the point that at the end of the war most such lines needed to be rebuilt in order to stay in operation. Ripping them out to build roads for cars was not a conspiracy but a popular transition which at that time had few visible downsides.
- washbrain 4y ago
  If only there had been solutions to heating and cooling, or ride comfort. Sadly, we as a species never got around to inventing heat pumps, springs, or cushioned seating. LOL. Cars were popular post war, so were suburbs. But surely GM had no incentive to make them so. I'm not saying they personally went out and sabotaged the streetcars, but they absolutely put their thumb on every scale they could.
  - bobthepanda 4y ago
    AC came to public transportation pretty late, mostly due to reliability issues; a broken AC in a car is a personal problem, but a broken AC in public transit is the operator's problem. It also didn't really help that the US made a "standard" streetcar that was such a lemon that they were starting to get scrapped only 11 years after entering service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Standard_Light_Rail_Vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Standard_Light_Rail_Vehicle Most of our modern improvements to modern light rail vehicles came from manufacturing designs either straight from or derivatives of successful European ones. But that wasn't an option in the less globalized mid-century.
    - jahewson 4y ago
      > that wasn't an option in the less globalized mid-century. Oh it wasn’t less global, the Republican administration forced government entities to buy (or in this case build) American instead of European in an attempt to fight inflation.

jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago

My town is famous for being a city that feels like a bunch of neighborhoods. Nearly all of those iconic neighborhoods are along the historic street car routes, that were dismantled in the 30s and 40s. I won't claim the street cars were perfect, but there is a lot of merit to the idea that they were replaced by an inferior solution due to the prevailing winds of the moment. What I find more interesting is the street car lines had such a dramatic impact that now 100 years later they're still defining the shape of the city.

IshKebab 4y ago
> My town is famous for being a city that feels like a bunch of neighborhoods. Ha, I think everywhere I've lived has described itself like this. Maybe it's less common in the US because you don't have cities swallowing up villages.
- jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
  Yeah, US city planning is unfortunately pretty dismal. My town has a reputation for being better than most, but truth is we've grown so fast the last 2 decades our transit system is overwhelmed now too. Most US cities are dominated by suburban sprawl, and where there's pretty much nothing like a walkable neighborhood high street.

throw0101a 4y ago

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0

m0llusk 4y ago

This always comes up, but is not accurate. Streetcars were never greatly loved. They were boiling hot in the summer, freezing in winter, the ride was jarring, and they were crowded with all manner of people. During the war maintenance was deferred to the point that at the end of the war most such lines needed to be rebuilt in order to stay in operation. Ripping them out to build roads for cars was not a conspiracy but a popular transition which at that time had few visible downsides.

washbrain 4y ago
If only there had been solutions to heating and cooling, or ride comfort. Sadly, we as a species never got around to inventing heat pumps, springs, or cushioned seating. LOL. Cars were popular post war, so were suburbs. But surely GM had no incentive to make them so. I'm not saying they personally went out and sabotaged the streetcars, but they absolutely put their thumb on every scale they could.
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  AC came to public transportation pretty late, mostly due to reliability issues; a broken AC in a car is a personal problem, but a broken AC in public transit is the operator's problem. It also didn't really help that the US made a "standard" streetcar that was such a lemon that they were starting to get scrapped only 11 years after entering service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Standard_Light_Rail_Vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Standard_Light_Rail_Vehicle Most of our modern improvements to modern light rail vehicles came from manufacturing designs either straight from or derivatives of successful European ones. But that wasn't an option in the less globalized mid-century.
  - jahewson 4y ago
    > that wasn't an option in the less globalized mid-century. Oh it wasn’t less global, the Republican administration forced government entities to buy (or in this case build) American instead of European in an attempt to fight inflation.