When Streetcars Ruled the Streets

Columbus, dwarfed

I love the story of China’s naval dominance early in the 15th century. It, deservedly, takes the West’s colonial and imperial past down a few pegs.

Further Reading: When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433

General Motors’ bankruptcy makes their anti-competitive and illegal dismantling of US cities’ streetcar systems all the more rankling.

I’ve read the account in Duany’s Suburban Nation and elsewhere, but had never found it as compelling as Jacobs’ brief synopsis, noting:

An electric streetcar was more economical to maintain than a bus and lasted three times as long as a bus… “Families rigged to fail” Dark Age Ahead (p39)

Despite knowing both of these stories, I had never made the connection. China jettisoned their fleet; US cities ditched the streetcar.

Question: What does this have to do with families?

Jacobs’ answer: Dependence on private automobiles has been at the expense of community and family life.

Time is limited. I recently heard P.J. O’Rourke describe cars as “motorized cupholders.” It’s where we are, where we spend our time, where we break bread “together.”

It’s not all on GM; it’s not all because of the streetcar. Jacobs promises to detail more of the forces at work in American culture.