The Decline of Transit: A Corporate Conspiracy or Failure of Public Policy? The Case of Portland, Oregon

Journal of Policy History

Volumn 9, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 450-474

  Bianco, Martha J ^a  

^a PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 84937264888     PISSN: 08980306     EISSN: 15284190     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0898030600006175     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Bradford Snell, American Ground Transport (1973), reproduced as an appendix to U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly on S. 1167, Part 4A, 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1974, A-2, A-29.
2. Bradford Snell, Testimony in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly on S. 1167, Part 4A, 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1974, 1839.
3. See, for example, George M. Smerk, Urban Transportation: The Federal Role (Bloomington, Ind., 1965)
4. idem, ed., Readings in Urban Transportation (Bloomington, Ind., 1968)
5. Glenn Yago, The Decline of Transit: Urban Transportation in German and U.S. Cities, 1900–1970 (Cambridge, 1984).
6. Joseph Alioto, Testimony in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly on S. 1167, Part 4A, 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1974, 1797.
7. Exhibit 6, Excerpt from Hearing Before Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee entitled “A study of the Antitrust Laws,” December 8, 1955, pt. 8: Statement of Facts from the Court Records Regarding General Motors in the National City Lines Cases, in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly on S. 1167, Part 3, Ground Transportation Industries, 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1974, 1820.
8. The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly.
9. See, for example, Scott L. Bottles, Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modem City (Berkeley, Calif., 1987)
10. Sy Adler, “The Transformation of the Pacific Electric Railway: Bradford Snell, Roger Rabbit, and the Politics of Transportation in Los Angeles,” Urban Affairs Quarterly 27 (September 1991): 51–86.
11. Portland Electric Power Company, Annual Reports, 1909 to 1936
12. Edward A. Roberts, “Life Expectancy of Street Cars,” Transit Journal 80 (September 1936): 305.
13. For a full discussion of the history and characteristics of the three mass-transit alternatives, see John Anderson Miller, Fares, Please! A Popular History of Trolleys, Horsecars, Streetcars, Buses, Elevateds, and Subways (New York, 1960, rpt. 1941).
14. “Industry to Replace 70% of Old Equipment in Next Five Years,” Transit Journal 80 (September 15, 1936): 345
15. “Looking at All Three,” Transit Journal 80 (September 15, 1936): 346. Indeed, NCL did operate a mixed system in both Los Angeles and St. Louis.
16. Portland Electric Power Company, Annual Report, 1924.
17. Annual Report., 1928.
18. Portland City Ordinance No. 1065, September 6, 1871 (italics added).
19. Donald E. Dewees, “The Decline of the American Street Railways,” Transit Quarterly 24 (October 1970): 574
20. Mac Sebree and Paul Ward, Transit's Stepchild: The Trolley Coach, Interurbans Special No. 59, vol. 30, no. 1, Summer 1973 (Cerritos, Calif., 1973), 60
21. “Tomorrow's Street Car,” Transit Journal 80 (July 1936): 219. Costs for vehicles varied, depending on whether the installation was a first installation, on the capacity of the vehicle, on the size of the order, and so on. Estimates for first trolley coaches range from $9,000 to $14,000. Estimates for first PCC cars range from $14,000 to $15,000. Estimates for motor buses range from $1,000 to $10,000.
22. David M. Jones, Urban Transit Policy: An Economic and Political History (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1985), 62.
23. Roger M. Kyes, Statement in Exhibit 6, Excerpt from Hearing Before Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee entitled “A Study of the Antitrust Laws,” December 8, 1955, pt. 8: Statement of Facts from the Court Records Regarding General Motors in the National City Lines Cases, in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly on S. 1167, Part 3, Ground Transportation Industries, 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1829.
24. Jones, Urban Transit Policy, 62.
25. Snell, American Ground Transport, A-28.
26. Exhibit 2, “Findings of the United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, United States v. National City Lines (Criminal Conviction), 186 F2d 562, upheld on January 31,1951, in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly on S. 1167, Part 3, Ground Transportation Industries, 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1974, 1874.
27. E. Roy Fitzgerald, Testimony in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly on S. 1167, Part 4A, 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1974, 1824.
28. “Street Car Plan Has Opposition,” Oregon Journal, 3 June 1939.
29. “Pepco Tells City Plans Withdrawn,” Oregon Journal, 11 July 1939
30. “Modernizing for Cars Withdrawn,” News-Telegram, 11 July 1939
31. “Streetcar Revamp Starts,” The Oregonian, 27 October 1939.
32. “Triple Trouble Brews over Portland Traction Modernizing,” News-Telegram, 24 May 1939.
33. St. Clair, Motorization of American Cities, 89.
34. John R. Meyer, J. F. Kain, and M. Wohl, The Urban Transportation Problem (Cambridge, Mass., 1965).
35. Portland City Ordinance No. 13089; “Revised Franchise Adopted at Portland,” Transit Journal 80 (March 1936), 92. This movement away from the exclusive franchise was also apparent in Seattle's 1905 franchise to the Seattle Electric Company; that company had asked for an exclusivity clause, but after protest by municipal ownership advocates, the provision of exclusivity was removed.
36. See Richard C. Berner, Seattle 1900–1920: From Boomtoum, Urban Turbulence, to Restoration (Seattle, 1991), 111.
37. “Trolley War Out in Open; ‘Insult’ Seen,” News-Telegram, 3 April 1935.
38. Marmion D. Mills, “Proposed Service of the Portland Motor Coach Company in Portland, Oregon,” 1935
39. “Backing Offered New Bus Concern,” The Oregonian, 18 April 1935.
40. St. Clair, Motorization of American Cities, 111.
41. Jonathan Kwitny, “The Great Transportation Conspiracy,” Harper's Magazine, 1981, 20.
42. Dorothy McCullough Lee, Report to City Council, 26 July 1946.
43. Quoted in “Council Receives Decision of Group on Bus Purchase,” The Oregordan, 1 August 1946.
44. Portland City Council Minutes, 24 May 1946.
45. Gordon G. Steele, Letter to Portland City Council, Portland, 14 July 1948.
46. Gordon G. Steele, quoted in “Illness of Commissioner Halts Hearing on Bus Fare Raise as Expert Finishes,” The Oregonian, 26 August 1947.
47. Gordon G. Steele, Letter to Joel Dirlam, 26 April 1950.
48. Paul Barrett, The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago, 1900–1930 (Philadelphia, 1983), 176–178.
49. The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago., 176.
50. The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago., 91–96.
51. The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago., 90.
52. The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago., 179–192.
53. The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago., 165.
54. The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago., 203, 217.
55. Jones, Urban Transit Policy, 63.