By Larry Romanoff, May 28, 2022

One
of the grand parts of American mythology revolves around what is called
“America’s Love Affair With the Automobile”, presented as an exciting
if a bit quirky personal expression of independent and freedom-loving
America, where inexpensive mass transportation failed to evolve due to
Americans’ individuality and desire for freedom. But this historical
narrative is wrong. Today’s US ‘car culture’ was the result of a massive
conspiracy contrived by the auto and oil oligarchs and, like the
consumer society, imposed on an unsuspecting nation through deceit and
propaganda. Most of the truth has been deleted from the historical
record and replaced with a ‘feel-good’ fairytale. After trashing the
mass transit systems, the automakers led by GM produced a wide array of
mythical narratives to justify and praise the transportation system they
had created.
Some Background
This
story begins, as do many others similar, in the early 1900s, when the
US was busy industrialising, when mass public transportation consisting
of trains and trams was filling much of the nation’s needs. Autos were
of course rapidly evolving at the same time, but gasoline-powered
transportation, whether by private auto or mass transit, was on its way
out. Almost all of the nation’s local and inter-city train transport was
electric, and electric automobiles were rapidly gaining ground over
their gas-powered rivals. By 1900, nearly 40% of all US cars were
electric, and were so popular that New York City had a fleet of electric
taxis.