Many American cities have dire public transport systems, but it hasn't always been this way. How did they get so bad and how does Australia compare?
As the summer holidays fade into memory and Australians return to work, many of us are once again taking the daily public transport commute.But for all these problems, there's one small consolation. At least we're not in the United States.
"The public transport networks often have bad coverage … or the city itself is built in such a way that it makes it impossible to serve those places competently with public transport," he says. The coastal metropolis is perpetually clogged with traffic, with the very idea of catching public transport anathema for many Angelenos.In the 1920s, Los Angeles had the largest streetcar system in the world, mainly thanks to a privately owned system called Pacific Electric Railway.Pacific Electric "completely dominated the region for decades", Berman explains, but he adds that the company was more concerned about real estate deals and freight, rather than moving people around.
"It's more a question of how New York organises its transport bureaucracy than anything else," Berman adds. There was a planned LA subway, which was dug in the 1920s and has been abandoned since the 1950s. Cincinnati, in the Midwest, dug half of a subway system but never ran any trains. There are also abandoned tunnels in New York and Boston.
Ridership dropped severely in the early 1950s and passenger service ceased in 1956. Some parts were used for freight and others were repurposed for highways.One reason for America's dire public transport is much more nefarious than a love of shiny cars.
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