Traffic: it’s a relaxing way to spend some alone-time in the car catching up on your important business—shaving, reading, and listening to The 28th Amendment Radio Podcast*. But did you realize that below that rosy surface, sitting in traffic can be deeply frustrating and a waste of fuel? We have come a long way from the days of when “traffic” meant two or more horse-drawn carriages within a five mile stretch of dirt road; now the car is the vehicle of both choice and necessity for most Americans, thanks largely to political machinations and economic strong-arming.
Go back to the early 1920s. Very few people (mostly the wealthy) owned an automobile—four percent of the population did in 1915. But that was just fine because many cities had robust transit systems (electric streetcars) to move people in the cities and in their immediate environs. When General Motors started to tout buses as the wave of the future, the Powers that Be in cities from New York to Los Angeles figured that the “motorization” or “conversion” or “modernization” of their streetcars would be for the better. Buses, after all, did not have to run on rails fixed in the ground and they were advertised as cleaner, safer for passengers, and were not burdened with the (somewhat unfair) requirement of streetcar operators to clear snow and pave the roads. (A federal law separating the electric streetcars from the subsidies of their utility companies was a major blow also.) In reality, buses running on oil and emitting carbon monoxide were in no way cleaner than streetcars, had a shorter lifespan (needing to be replaced about twice as often as a streetcar), and were able to become snarled in road traffic, making them only the most optimal on light-density lines. Furthermore, the buses were saddled with the inherent inability to recover their operating costs and forced passengers into cars with steep fare increases.
But GM was not an innocent bystander in the decision to convert rail to bus. In order to acquire control of city systems, they were able to muscle their way into controlling most of the stock and thus the companies that were to be converted to buses. (Remember the movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Judge Doom buying out the Red Car to create an interstate highway system was entirely akin to the spirit of GM’s acquisitions.) They later formed a holding company with three other corporations and, during the 1930s and ‘40s, acquired 62 transit companies across the nation. In 23 of those cities, streetcars were replaced with General Motors buses, running on Firestone tires, and fueled by Phillips Oil (in the east) or Standard Oil (in the west). Simultaneously, city planners were being graduated from the seemingly-prestigious General Motors Institute (formerly the Flint Institute of Technology in Michigan). A new field at the time, the students were predictably taught how buses were superior to rail travel and that is consequently what they advised their employers in city halls across the nation. GM offered easy financing for organizations that wanted to scrap the streetcars, tore up rails upon acquisition of streetcar operations, and reportedly bribed city officials in Tampa with brand new Cadillacs to scrap their streetcars. GM was eventually taken to court in 1949 by the U.S. government where it was found to have violated the Sherman Antitrust Act—the executives were fined one dollar each.

A 1948 ad for the motorization of the Key System in Oakland, Calif. What the ad doesn't mention is that GM now has control of most of the company's assets and is giving the contract for bus conversion to themselves.
Rails now gone, fare increases and elimination of service prompted transit users to opt for their own personal vehicles rather than hop on the now-crowded, smelly, and infrequent buses. With the end of World War II came increased wealth, increased automobile use, and the inclination to construct Levittown-type suburbs with highways to connect to the cities. Americans were weaned from their urban centers and mass transit withered. Now the advent of sprawl and exurban communities has allowed people to own substantial tracts of land and to be tethered to their jobs, their cities, and their commercial centers by car. Cheap gas, a modest gas tax, and the natural American desire for mobility and ownership combined to make available the infrastructure and the psychological satisfaction of car use.
Now look at our mess. Communities have extended farther from job centers than transit could keep up; automobiles have gotten bigger than is sensible; and rail and bus service, which had been utilized to their maximum before the gas crunch, now find themselves overcrowded and underfunded as their infrastructure needs upgrading. People have driven about ten billion fewer miles this May than compared with last year and, in a catch 22, that lost gas tax revenue cannot be put toward mass transit application. Aside from people making lifestyle adjustments—moving closer to their jobs, trading in large cars, buying bicycles or motorcycles—cities are also seeking to institute (or reinstitute) rail systems that were lost in the mass transit holocaust of midcentury. Washington, D.C., for example, has already ordered modern electric trolley cars to be ran on a new 1.3-mile-long segment; the District’s last streetcar ran in 1962 and since then Congress has banned overhead wires, which hampers any further expansion into the city. Still, the construction of a new transit system is twofold: to both ease automobile congestion and to encourage retail and housing development along the tracks.

Another tack by local governments is to encourage transit-oriented development. With the example of Tysons Corner, Virginia, which will be served by multiple Metro stations, the idea is to build new urban centers of housing, retail, and corporate offices around a regional transportation network. In addition, San Francisco, a haven for all styles of mass transit, finds that its vintage streetcar system is filled to the brim with commuters and tourists and seeks to restore more vehicles in the coming years—an effort to appease the needs of modern commuting and to bolster the image of a historic city. Further, commuter rail is experiencing a boon, with systems in Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, and Nashville being recent upstarts. Commuter trains, which use conventional train tracks to reach people farther into the suburbs than buses, light rail, or trolleys, are languishing in a dozen other states for want of funding and increased capacity.
What is the solution to the gas crisis? An orchestrated investment in all of the options—more reliable and expanded inner-city mass transit; increased capacity and frequency to commuter rail service; encouragement of economically-feasible forms of personal transportation; reengineering sprawl and exurban communities to reduce the need for car travel while still maintaining the sought-after lifestyle; and a bolstered oil supply to satisfy current needs and fund enhanced infrastructure.
*no such podcast is extant
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