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There was also a simple economic analysis of the effects of Jim Crow in the original article. Basically, the streetcar operators opposed segregating transportat

• akgerber 11y ago
  Probably not much— streetcars disappeared in Northern cities at the same time as in the South. A huge problem for many private transit systems was that they signed contracts specifying a nickel fare in the pre-inflation era, so once inflation became part of monetary policy, they were unable to properly fund operations. Beyond that, most streetcars were built before automobiles were common, so they could move relatively efficiently down the middle of the road, unencumbered by traffic. Once auto traffic congested roads, streetcars became much slower, and they weren't able to change lanes to get around an obstruction. That problem could be solved by reserving lanes for streetcars, as bus service could be dramatically improved in most cities by striping exclusive bus lanes and camera-enforcing them, but that wasn't politically feasable at the time.