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Comment by notatoad | Hacker News Reader

America doesn't have a well developed public transportation infrastructure because of the auto lobby. You can't build a train without annoying GM and ford.

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The top 10 cities in the US by GDP:

* NYC

* LA

* Chicago

* DC

* Houston

* Dallas

* Philly

* SF

* Boston

* Atlanta

Most of these cities have effective public transit. LA is the notable exception (and the one the "auto lobby" narrative seems to pick out).

LA has more public transit than most people think; 1.4 million boardings per day ain't nothing to sneeze at.

http://www.metro.net/news/pages/ridership-statistics/

And notably, in the last 15 years, they got a fairly effective rail back up up and running (the MTA rails) as well as Metrolink.

I am surprised that Atlanta is on the list. In terms of public transit, it is not only abysmal, it seems that the current GA legislature is going out of their way to kill it.

Agreed, do we have any documentation on this? (I know the lobby industry conveniently has little documentation in general, but I'd love to see any papers written on the subject)

GM bought and destroyed almost all sustainable transportation in America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspi...

That Wikipedia article doesn't make that claim, and normalized by GDP actually contradicts it by pointing out that 5 of the top 10 of those cities actually have well-developed rail (I'd add DC and Atlanta to that list, bringing us up to 7 --- in other words, leaving out only LA, Houston, and Dallas).

I disagree about Atlanta. Atlanta does not have a well-developed rail. I should know - I live there. :)

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