Re: Streetcar conspiracy show on SBS Saturday 25/9 7:30pm

["Richo" <richardc@tpg.com.au>]

Chris Stratton <stratton.chris.cp@nospam.bhp.com.au> wrote in message
7s3nho$2ig16@atbhp.corpmel.bhp.com.au">news:7s3nho$2ig16@atbhp.corpmel.bhp.com.au...
> The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) TV guide lists a show on SBS on Sat 25/9 at
> 7:30 pm called "As it Happened: Taken For A Ride". Their description
> follows:
> "An extraordinary documentary exploding the myth of the family car. Before
> the birth of the motor vehicle, America was serviced by a network of
cheap,
> clean streetcars. Taken For A Ride reveals how General Motors led the push
> to destroy the streetcars, using misinformation and dummy companies,
buying
> them out, and replacing them with buses, intended to make a natural
> transition to motor cars. The propaganda war was so extraordinary that at
> one point a GM transport engineer proclaimed bus fumes were not harmful."
> In light of a recent thread on this NG maybe they should use USA rather
than
> America <g>.
> --
> Regards,
> Chris Stratton
> Wollongong, NSW, Australia
> Remove NOSPAM if replying.
>
This was the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit - which I admired at the time
for slipping the conspiracy into a cartoon/kids film, without weighing the
film down.

We of course had our own conspiracy - not necessarily the same perpetrators
but the same general theme - the quarter acre block, the kids playing in the
back yard - every time someone tells me "Australia just isn't suitable for
public transport" I despair, knowing that this situation was NOT a
inevitability, but a deliberate policy choice of government and business. If
urban development had been kept tight and focused (apart from the benefits
of having large amounts of arable land still available rather than under
houses) our public transport would be all of those things people say about
more densely populated countries.

I note that in the USA, which has a population in the same order of
magnitude as Europe, pro-car policies have resulted in much greater car use
than in Europe which is generally more pro-rail. Sure the USA has plenty of
space, but that crowded NE has all the population characteristics of Europe.
It should therefore have a similar train service if population were the only
determinant of demand for passenger rail.




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