[OT] Public Transit

[Evan Leibovitch]

On 27 October 2010 13:36, <phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org> wrote:


>
> I think we're talking about two different periods of history. I'm
> referring to something much earlier.
> =========================================
> Indeed, in the 1920s automaker General Motors (GM) began a covert campaign
> to undermine the popular rail-based public transit systems that were
> ubiquitous in and around the country’s bustling urban areas. At the time,
> only one in 10 Americans owned cars and most people traveled by trolley
> and streetcar.
>


I guess we can be happy that GM & friends concentrated more on the domestic
market.
Given that this was pre-auto-pact and pre-tar-sands, Canada was not exactly
home to quite as massive a domestic car and oil industry to grow.

Also consider that the pro-car attitude was always more prominent in the US,
-- compare the US Interstate Highway initiative with the Trans-Canada
Highway. Indeed, perhaps the decentralization in Canada -- in which
transportation is primarily a provincial issue -- was another factor in
making life more difficult for would-be lobbyists.

- Evan
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