There are the remains of an old interurban line that runs parallel to Nickel Plate Trail, between Kokomo and Peru. I often wonder what it would be like, if it was still in service today?
In the 1920's you could live in Danville or Greenfield (or anywhere in between) and commute to a job in Indianapolis via the interurban. A hundred years later Mayor Ballard dedicated driving lanes to bicycles and Marion County residents are being taxed $100/yr to prop up a dying bus system. One of these days we'll decide how we want to move people and get serious about it.
The Red Line is definitely not the right approach.
By the time National City Lines was buying up these streetcar companies, they were already in bankruptcy."
Surprisingly, though, streetcars didn't solely go bankrupt because people chose cars over rail. The real reasons for the streetcar's demise are much less nefarious than a GM-driven conspiracy — they include gridlock and city rules that kept fares artificially low
And paying for this maintenance got more and more difficult for one key reason: many contracts had permanently locked companies into a 5-cent fare, which wasn't indexed to inflation...streetcars had to get approval from municipal commissions for any fare hikes... "Nobody on these commissions would approve fare increases to cover costs, because that would get them in trouble with their constituents," Norton says.
While it's true that National City continued ripping up lines and replacing them with buses — and that, long-term, GM benefited from the decline of mass transit — it's very hard to argue that National City killed the streetcar on its own. Streetcar systems went bankrupt and were dismantled in virtually every metro area in the United States, and National City was only involved in about 10 percent of cases.
I recall debating the GM/public transport "conspiracy" in a business class in college. I wish I could think of the professor's name, now it's going to bother me. He was a retired colonel and I can picture him. It'll come to me (and not matter to anyone but me, I know). His take was GM wasn't trying to kill the street car, it was trying to be everything to everyone in the transportation market. Even if you rode the interurban, you'd want a car for that "last mile", etc.
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/7/8562007/streetcar-history-demise lays out many of the same arguments.
There's more at the link, but I think it's fairly persuasive there was no intent to kill the street cars and no great crystal ball that it would be the most profitable approach in the long run. It just evolved that way. Some key points:
There are the remains of an old interurban line that runs parallel to Nickel Plate Trail, between Kokomo and Peru. I often wonder what it would be like, if it was still in service today?
All the buses seem to do is give criminals from the ****holes access to suburban neighborhoods that they don't belong in. And Crime rises where it shouldn't
Nashville, TN is trying to get the voters to support a (something like) $9 Billion public transportation boondoggle. Personally, I'm glad I have a car/truck to drive wherever I want, whenever I want. I'm glad I don't have to live in proximity to public transportation and depend on it to get to work, the store, etc. I don't share the fond sentimental attachment to public transportation.
There's more at the link, but I think it's fairly persuasive there was no intent to kill the street cars and no great crystal ball that it would be the most profitable approach in the long run. It just evolved that way.
Maybe so, but we all know they silenced that guy who invented the "100 mpg carburetor".
If I could make the bus work for me, I'd seriously consider it.
But as it stands right now - it just won't work.
Pretending that I don't have to take my son to school (preschool - no bussing), I'd still have to drive to a bus stop in Greenwood. I think it's at the Rural King parking lot. Then I'd have to take that bus into down town - however long that would take. Then I'd have to wait on another bus to take me over to the east side. I could get off the bus right at my office, however, as there's a stop IN our parking lot. But that would take like 1:40 total commute time. Minimum. And then I'd have to do it all over again going the other direction. Simply not feasible.