Give Yourself the Green Light 1954 Automobile Film

Advocacy film produced to garner public support for the creation of the Interstate Highway System.

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[smithwicks2]

Notice everyone sitting in traffic has their windows rolled down, almost no cars had air conditioning in 1954, save for the most exspensive models; Cadillac, Lincoln, Packard and Buick. (no seatbelts either!!).

[johnnyfarout]

Happy Americans sitting endlessly in traffic jambs on their way to a fruitless future of nightmarish heavy metal dreams and nuclear doom .

[PetrScorpio]

ford, ford, chevy, caddy, ford, chevy, chevy, ford.........

[MegaTmarshall]

GM purchased and closed the efficient trolley / subway system that once existed in LA to enhance the sales of their automobiles. It's as simple as that!

[DTD110865]

This is what happens when we don't build the roads we need:

watch?v=r8VdN8ijiUM&p=85498BF5­472270E6

watch?v=o5FURRt56A4&list=PL854­98BF5472270E6

[DTD110865]

@mistersmith6000

You may not realize this, but there are plenty of places where sprawl has occured without road improvements, and in fact there are places where it has occured as a result of the railroads. Ever hear of Garden City, New York? That place is an example of suburban sprawl built by trains. In any case, I can show you places all over the US where highways should've been built, but instead have housing developments, shopping malls and industrial parks and such.

[mistersmith6000]

@DTD110865 In the 19C the same forces charged the dialectic between rail development and land speculation . Transport infrastructure is not a benign or passive factor in the equation. No ones fault, but sprawl in America could not exist without roads and cars. Trains are expensive and loss making but they can help. In the future, carbon tax will hurt the states where sprawl is worst although it is likely they will get help from denser (population) areas.

[DTD110865]

@mistersmith6000

No, you have to realize that's a load of garbage. The increase in highway spending and decline of trolley had nothing to do with "powerful conservative pressures." They had to do with the increase in population and the fact that the roads of previous generations couldn't handle the traffic of the period. Plus, there has been plenty of sprawl without improved roads, so don't blame it on road improvements.

[mistersmith6000]

@DTD110865 Trolleys killed far fewer people than cars. But what you have to realize is that throughout the 20th century and particularly post ww2, powerful conservative pressures have pushed us towards highways and urban sprawl and the Florida gov is in this tradition. He said he will never support rail. Amtrak are collecting some of the cash from the cancellation, of course they will, they need any penny they can get. Rail supports density, roads support sprawl. That is at stake now.

[DTD110865]

@mistersmith6000

The actual decline of trolleys began after World War One, and this is due to the overhead wires, and other cost and safety concerns. For the record, while some trolleys were replaced by buses, others were replaced by subways. And yes, Amtrak did lobby against the high-speed rail project between Tampa and Oralndo, because it was intended to run along the median of Interstate 4, but that wasn't the only reason it wasn't as good of an idea as you might think.

[mistersmith6000]

@DTD110865 Trolleys, (trams), got culled through the 50s/60s in the west, and then following that in the 70s and 80s across Asia. It's a complex systemic thing that involves, among other things, car usage. Trams get in the way of cars, cars slow down trams, trams become inefficient so close them down. Done, story over(take a few pics for nostalgia) Snaghai actually banned bicycles! Florida story= nothing to do with saving Amtrak. Those folks would have let Amtrak hang out to dry decades ago.

[DTD110865]

@mistersmith6000

The closure of LA's trolleys had more to do with their own failings rather than any "addiction to oil." Florida's cancellation of the high-speed bullet train wasn't as bad of an idea as you might think, considering that it included too many stops between Tampa and Orlando that would've slowed all the trips down, and would've deprived Amtrak's existing route of needed funds.