Screen LibraryThe great American transit disaster : a century of austerity, auto-centric planning, and white flight /
"One of the most enduring American urban myths concerns the death of the Red Car Trolley, an extensive and equitable system in Los Angeles County that some say was weakened and then eradicated by US car manufacturers. Yet as Nicholas Dagen Bloom shows, an array of larger yet less tangible force...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Published: |
The University of Chicago Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Chicago : |
| Publication Dates: | 2023. |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Series: |
Historical studies of urban America
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| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
"One of the most enduring American urban myths concerns the death of the Red Car Trolley, an extensive and equitable system in Los Angeles County that some say was weakened and then eradicated by US car manufacturers. Yet as Nicholas Dagen Bloom shows, an array of larger yet less tangible forces together interacted to practically murder public transportation of all kinds in cities nationwide. Most centrally, public transit collapsed because essentially we wanted it to-no conspiracy necessary. Detailing the histories of transportation in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco, Bloom seeks to set all of our transit myths to rest for the sake not only of accuracy but in order to enrich our conversations about public transportation funding today"-- |
| Carrier Form: | 357 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780226824406 0226824403 |
| Index Number: | HE308 |
| CLC: | F577.12-09 |
| Call Number: | F577.12-09/B655 |
| Contents: | Introduction -- Pre-World War II -- Part I: Urban transit rise and decline -- Baltimore: City leaders versus private transit -- Chicago: A limited public commitment to transit -- Boston: Reverse engineering public transit -- The postwar transit disaster, 1945 to 1980 -- Part II: Unsubsidized private transit -- Baltimore: Urban crisis, race, and private transit collapse -- Atlanta: Race, transit, and the sunbelt boom -- Part III: 'Pay as you go' public transit -- Chicago: The failure of 'pay as you go' public transit -- Detroit: Racism and America's worst big-city transit -- Part IV: Public transit that worked better -- Boston pioneers public regional transit -- San Francisco: Deeply subsidized public transit -- Conclusion: Beyond transit fatalism. |