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Ride the Big Red Cars: How Trolleys Helped Build Southern California
The first woman to establish nursing as a respected profession, Miss Nightingale was forced to continually battle for acceptance
- GenresHistory
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2022
I shared a love of trains with my grandfather, who died in 1993.
This is a book we both read and shared some interesting discussions over. My aunt and uncle live in California, and my grandfather visited several places in California after reading this book.
Highly reccomended.
This is a book we both read and shared some interesting discussions over. My aunt and uncle live in California, and my grandfather visited several places in California after reading this book.
Highly reccomended.
November 9, 2013
The trains-vs-cars politics won't surprise you. Nor will the NIMBY attitudes, so common for the era. You'll keep reading, though, for the maps, the charts, the photos.
We've all heard the conspiracy theories pointing to the automakers, especially GM, in actively pushing the Red Cars into the dustbin of history. The author also blames it generally on cars, but without pointing at corporations. He has the data to back it up.
Just as "guns don't [exactly] kill people," autos didn't [exactly] kill the Red Car. People killed the Red Car.
It was a standard-issue death spiral. The Red Cars once were the generally accepted way to get around. They had the roads mostly to themselves and tooled around the city on reliable schedules.
Then came the auto, competing with the Red Cars for street space. This slowed the Red Cars down. Which made some people want their own cars. Those cars slowed the trains down even more, stoking more desire for autos. Ultimately the snarled traffic left the Red Cars nearly immobile. A couple of graphs in this book neatly show the inverse correlation between travel time and ridership.
Perhaps the automakers did help this process along. But it was doing nicely on its own, thank you.
We've all heard the conspiracy theories pointing to the automakers, especially GM, in actively pushing the Red Cars into the dustbin of history. The author also blames it generally on cars, but without pointing at corporations. He has the data to back it up.
Just as "guns don't [exactly] kill people," autos didn't [exactly] kill the Red Car. People killed the Red Car.
It was a standard-issue death spiral. The Red Cars once were the generally accepted way to get around. They had the roads mostly to themselves and tooled around the city on reliable schedules.
Then came the auto, competing with the Red Cars for street space. This slowed the Red Cars down. Which made some people want their own cars. Those cars slowed the trains down even more, stoking more desire for autos. Ultimately the snarled traffic left the Red Cars nearly immobile. A couple of graphs in this book neatly show the inverse correlation between travel time and ridership.
Perhaps the automakers did help this process along. But it was doing nicely on its own, thank you.
March 16, 2012
I first read this in an earlier edition. First edition was 1962.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews