I see this a lot and GM definitely deserves a large share of the blame but we also need to look at ourselves, our culture, and the way we decided to evolve our cities.
Redlining, white flight, car-centric suburbs, HOAs, wide streets, 2-car garages, Hollywood movies like Rebel Without a Cause. The list of factors goes on and on and on.
A lot of people like to blame boomers for all our ills but I think the trend started earlier with people who were teenagers at the end of WW2. They were too young to fight in the war but they were old enough to get sucked into this brand new marketing and cultural phenomenon known as the teenager.
Prior to WW2, marketers targeted only older adults and their messaging was very practical and family-oriented. After WW2 there began a movement towards teenage independence, rebellion, and rock & roll. The centre of all this independence was the car!
I agree, NIMBY behavior and local political inefficiency in cali makes it impossible to build any high speed transportation. We barely got bart (and LA metro) extensions built after such a long delay.
I’d love a day when the entire west coast is connected via high speed, but right now we have just amtrak which is ungodly slow and doubles how long a trip takes
What is that middle lane for?
It’s for all those drivers that enjoy getting stuck behind that one idiot doing half the speed limit for no reason.
Or it might be a lane for tidal traffic: one way during the morning rush hour and the other way in the evening.
Also driving.
Probably an express lane that allows through traffic to not need to deal with on-ramp/off-ramp congestion
Exactly. A fee is paid for the illusion of expeditious transit as you will encounter someone going slower than the “free” transit lanes far more frequently than desired. It’s fun to look next to you in those situations as you feel the justified contempt of passersby zipping along on their journey.
Saw a documentary on how gm killed the electric car they made in to 90s
GM EV1 electric car was discontinued in the late 1990s after its production run (1996-1999), and GM controversially crushed almost all of them in the early 2000s, sparking the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”. The company stated the decision was due to high production and maintenance costs and the belief that it was not a commercially viable product. The EV1’s demise is often linked to the end of California’s zero-emission vehicle mandate, after which GM and other automakers lobbied to soften the regulations.
The very first cars were electric, but since batteries were shit back then, steam and ice engines took over.
They were still selling into the 30s, marketed primarily towards women (“less maintenance, no gasoline needed”, etc). The Depression really killed off the environment that allowed many people to own multiple cars, and those little electric city cars were the first to go because you needed something that was big and could actually carry your kids and your dog and your belongings and whatever else.
On the subject, just a few weeks ago an EV1 got into legal private ownership for the first time ever and the restoration process has started!
Just imagine what our battery capacities would be by now if we had gone forward with those
Same with solar when Carter and Obama pushed it vs China leaping forward in solar and EV
I don’t even care the geopolitics of it. Solar and EVs are cheaper for the average person and better for the environment
Couldn’t Fascist Ford, shipping weapons to Nazi Germany, be held just as culpable? Fuck all these cunts.
My area in Los Angeles used to have several rail lines nearby along with pedestrian tunnels (called “sub-ways” at the time) all over the place. I like looking at old photos from those times and marvel at how much more pedestrian friendly it all used to be.
oh no, !fuckcars@lemmy.world is leaking again…
…anyway!
Expensive planet killing death machines are all they are.
It was Henry Ford and John D Rockefeller who killed public transportation like electric trolley cars, so they could be replaced by gas guzzling vehicles.
General Motors Streetcar conspiracy
Conviction:
In 1949, General Motors and other companies were convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and supplies to the transit companies they controlled.
There used to be a line on my street in Lansing 😭
don’t forget Firestone et al…
‘Enjoying’ the BO, scabies/fleas and creeps groping n taking vids when you’re just trying to get home in one piece to be able to access a restroom finally.
Yes, these are daily occurrences on public transit where public transit is marginalized for the marginalized. Not in civilized Nations though. So basically anywhere outside the US.
You can get that as a woman travelling anywhere.
