Bileet of paper
Part I. Summary
Electric trolley cars or trams were once the chief mode of public transportation in the United States
Though they required tracks and electric cables to run these trolley cars were clean and comfortable in 1922
auto manufacturer General Motors created a special unit to replace electric trolleys with cars, trucks, and
buses. Over the next decade, they lobbied for laws and regulations that made operating trams more difficult
and less profitable. In 1936 General Motors created several front companies to purchase and dismantle the
trolley car system. They received big investments from Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips
Petroleum, and others in the automotive industry. Some people suspect that these parties wanted to replace
trolley cars with buses to make public transportation less desirable. This would then increase automobile sales
The decline of the tram system in North America could be blamed on many things-labor strikes, the Great
Depression, regulations that were unfavorable to operators. Yet, perhaps the primary cause was having a
group of powerful men from rival sectors of the auto industry working together to ensure its destruction. Fi
up, please.