It is a verifiable fact that the human land speed record was set in 1899 at 65 mph by an electric car. In 1927, General Motors acquired a controlling share of the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company and appointed Hertz as a main board director. And, since not all electric cars look so distinct —see Tesla for evidence—it’s easy to question why automakers decide on particular styling choices for electric cars. In some cases, the streetcars do not actually ride on the street. [49], In 1972, Senator Philip Hart introduced into congress the 'Industrial Reorganization Act', with an intention to restructure the U.S. economy to restore competition and address antitrust concern. What a hit movie really tells us about innovation. Rail was more comfortable and had less rolling resistance than street traffic on granite block or macadam and horse-drawn streetcars were generally a step up from the horsebus. Above all else, we respect everyone's opinions and ALL religious beliefs and creeds. SwiftyDC 7 years ago #1. [48] The Pacific Electric Railway's struggling passenger operations were purchased by Metropolitan Coach Lines in 1953 and were taken into public ownership in 1958 after which the last routes were converted to bus operation. There is no question that a GM-controlled entity called National City Lines did buy a number of municipal trolley car systems. You also have to take into consideration the energy required to fabricate the batteries, as well as the fossil fuels burned during mining. The Salt Lake City system is mentioned in the 1949 court papers. Ford engineer Fred Allison test drives second experimental electric car powered by Edison nickel iron battery at Henry's Highland Park farm in the summer of 1914. Electric cars make up less than half of 1 per cent of the North American car market, which means that economies of scale remain out of reach. My plan is to cash out eventually and build myself one bad ass gas guzzling monster with the gains. , Share #19 - Aug 28, 2010 at 3:48 PM Joined: Nov 26, 2009 Posts: 1,205 Referrals: 0 Sythe Gold: 0. pure skillzz Guru. We have already mentioned a strange obsession phenomenon shorters have for Tesla. [7], Many electric lines—especially in the West—were tied into other real estate or transportation enterprises. [53] In it, Snell said that General Motors was "a sovereign economic state" and said that the company played a major role in the displacement of rail and bus transportation by buses and trucks. [67] Cliff Slater suggested that the regulatory framework in the US actually protected the electric streetcars for longer than would have been the case if there was less regulation.[70]. The San Diego Electric Railway was sold to Western Transit Company, which was in turn owned by J. L. Haugh in 1948 for $5.5 million. [18], The New York Railways Corporation began conversion to buses in 1935, with the new bus services being operated by the New York City Omnibus Corporation, which shared management with The Omnibus Corporation. Most of the companies involved were convicted in 1949 of conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce in the sale of buses, fuel, and supplies to NCL subsidiaries, but were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the transit industry. These arrangements, agreed to when streetcars were highly profitable, created gradual impossible financial pressures when combined with fixed fares. [58] Neither mayor, nor Snell himself, pointed out that the two cities were major parties to a lawsuit against GM which Snell himself had been "instrumental in bringing";[59] all had a direct or indirect financial interest. The Theory: If everything the Internet said about Nikola Tesla were true, we would all have flying cars and holodecks and transporters. Now Governments all over the world are banning tried & tested ICE cars for electric cars which is in their infancy. Electric Car and Petroleum Conspiracy Posted on March 8, 2016 by master Usually it is normal to listen to comments or even news transmiting the idea electric cars evolution is slow due to lobbys or pressure groups (Petroleum companies, cars manufacturers, etc) interested in blocking electric car … makes transparent all the evil personalities connected around these three forces. Also, it is just as clear that actions and inactions by government contributed significantly to the elimination of electric traction. Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley also testified, saying that GM, through its subsidiaries (namely PCL), "scrapped the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles streetcar systems leaving the electric train system totally destroyed". NCL often converted streetcars to bus operations in that period, although electric traction was preserved or expanded in some locations. [3] Systems included St. Louis, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Oakland. is a 2006 documentary film that explores the creation, limited commercialization, and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the mid-1990s. [6] Early electric cars generally had a two-man crew, a holdover from horsecar days, which created financial problems in later years as salaries outpaced revenues. Yellow Coach tried to persuade transit companies to replace streetcars with buses, but could not persuade the power companies that owned the streetcar operations to motorize. Even Automobile journalists who is likely to go against it went the other route which got me thinking Why are they praising electric cars when they’re just a gadget rather something with character or soul in it. The Electric Car Conspiracy ... that never was. [16] UCMT then approached the Portland, Oregon, system with a similar proposal. [19] During this period GM worked with Public Service Transportation in New Jersey to develop the "All-Service Vehicle", a bus also capable of working as a trackless trolley, allowing off-wire passenger collection in areas too lightly populated to pay for wire infrastructure. But Jack Rickard has a different theory on these guys. The idea is that a push for more EV would coincide with an effort to wean ourselves off of damaging fossil fuels. 410–12, compiled by Robert C. Fellmeth, Center for Study of Responsive Law, Grossman Publishers, sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFSnell1974 (, CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (. We hope to challenge issues which have captured the public’s imagination, from JFK and UFOs to 9/11. "[67], In 2010, CBS's Mark Henricks reported:[68]. [43] The trial judge said "I am very frank to admit to counsel that after a very exhaustive review of the entire transcript in this case, and of the exhibits that were offered and received in evidence, that I might not have come to the same conclusion as the jury came to were I trying this case without a jury,"[44] explicitly noting that he might not himself have convicted in a bench trial. PetroDollar I think these moguls & medias are pushing there electric future is maybe because they’ve to slash down the value of Crude Oil for the same reason that they devalued Dollar. Streetcars were later seen as obstructions to traffic, but for nearly 20 years they had the highest power-to-weight ratio of anything commonly found on the road, and the lowest rolling resistance. [33], In 1946, Edwin Jenyss Quinby (1894-1981), an activated reserve commander,[citation needed] founder of the Electric Railroaders' Association in 1934 (which lobbied on behalf of rail users and services),[34] and former employee of North Jersey Rapid Transit (which operated in suburban New Jersey, published a 24-page "expose" on the ownership of National City Lines addressed to "The Mayors; The City Manager; The City Transit Engineer; The members of The Committee on Mass-Transportation and The Tax-Payers and The Riding Citizens of Your Community". Share Tweet Share. It's also true that GM was convicted in a post-war trial of conspiring to monopolize the market for transportation equipment and supplies sold to local bus companies. [57], At the hearings in April 1974, San Francisco mayor and antitrust attorney Joseph Alioto testified that "General Motors and the automobile industry generally exhibit a kind of monopoly evil", adding that GM "has carried on a deliberate concerted action with the oil companies and tire companies...for the purpose of destroying a vital form of competition; namely, electric rapid transit". By Ronnie Schreiber Feb 08, 2009 12:29 AM ET . With the price of fuel in the UK due to tax, I am glad I have a hybrid tbh, The UK and EU wants to ban all petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Vogueishly, Who Killed the Electric Car? EV’s are a joke in terms of actually saving the earth, their exhaust pipe is just at the power plant instead of the back of their ride. Share . The founder of a Canadian-made, 100 per cent electric car says the federal government is blocking him from selling his cars in Canada. [citation needed], In 1945, NCL acquired the Los Angeles Railway (also known as the "Yellow Cars"),[32] which had been in financial trouble[vague] for some time. Moving from the crude lead acid batteries, the limitation on electric cars has always been the weight and size of the battery necessary to power it … The last San Diego streetcars were converted to buses by 1949. Parking Policies: An Overview of Management Strategies", "U.S. Court Makes Hedges Receiver for N.Y. Railways", "Who's really to blame for the death of LA's streetcars? Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. [56] Adding to the confusion, Snell had already joined the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly as a staff member. Respect other views and opinions, and keep an open mind. Honestly.... No. Soon after you’ll also see the departure of hybrids. Producing energy is messy business and gathering the raw materials to make batteries is messy business. I’ve been driving an electric car for years. By 1916, street railroads nationwide were wearing out their equipment faster than they were replacing it. The environmental impact of mining the large amounts of rare earth metals required for the batteries in my opinion negates all benefits of electric cars. “Were we to seize and to eliminate the results of Mr. Tesla’s work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark, our mills would be dead and idle.” Nikola Tesla Core Conspiracy – Free Energy. Maybe something will finally happen and the car dealers will take notice. [citation needed] Hertz's bus lines, however, were not in direct competition with any streetcars, and his core business was the higher-priced "motor coach". GM explicitly did not address the specific allegations that were sub judice. If electric cars have been around since the 19th century, then why haven't they become more widespread? Share . The Electric Car Conspiracy Theory Every now and then we come across claims of a vast conspiracy by the major oil companies in malicious collusion with an equally powerful auto industry. The notion of a General Motors streetcar conspiracy emerged after General Motors (GM) and other companies were convicted of monopolizing the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and its subsidiaries. what it takes to get the metals out of the ground negates any positives to move over to electric vehicles. The Electric Car Conspiracy I confess. That's all fair. ALL electric cars from EVERYBODY all told don’t reach 1% of the market for cars. They will always be pollutants, no matter how well they're refined and tweaked. If you're a conspiracy theorist, then this is one video that's perfect for you. Photo courtesy of Edwin Black. The Hybrid Car Conspiracy. This is a forum for free thinking, not hate speech. [8], By 1918, half of US streetcar mileage was in bankruptcy. In the same case, the defendants were accused of conspiring to own or control transit systems, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust act. ", The Straight Dope, 10-Jan-1986. By Bill Moore. [citation needed], The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 (UMTA) created the Urban Mass Transit Administration with a remit to "conserve and enhance values in existing urban areas" noting that "our national welfare therefore requires the provision of good urban transportation, with the properly balanced use of private vehicles and modern mass transport to help shape as well as serve urban growth". The Senate subcommittee printed GM's work in tandem with Snell's as an appendix to the hearings transcript. I must have been brainwashed in my sleep by crafty environmental terrorists. )[citation needed], However, George Hilton, a professor of economics at UCLA and noted transit scholar[60] rejected Snell's view, stating, "I would argue that these [Snell's] interpretations are not correct, and, further, that they couldn't possibly be correct, because major conversions in society of this character—from rail to free wheel urban transportation, and from steam to diesel railroad propulsion—are the sort of conversions which could come about only as a result of public preferences, technological change, the relative abundance of natural resources, and other impersonal phenomena or influence, rather than the machinations of a monopolist. [28] American City Lines (ACL), which had been organized to acquire local transportation systems in the larger metropolitan areas in various parts of the country in 1943, was merged with NCL in 1946. [26] Pacific City Lines (PCL), formed as a subsidiary of NCL in 1938, was to purchase streetcar systems in the western United States. What we need to do isn’t switch the way we consume energy but the way we create it! [citation needed], In 1970, Harvard Law student Robert Eldridge Hicks began working on the Ralph Nader Study Group Report on Land Use in California, alleging a wider conspiracy to dismantle U.S. streetcar systems, first published in Politics of Land: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Land Use in California. [69] Guy Span says that actions and inaction by government was one of many contributing factors in the elimination of electric traction. United States v. National City Lines, Inc. Yellow Coach – 1923-1943- GMC Truck & Coach Division, General Motors Corp. – 1943–present – Detroit, Michigan, Seal Beach–Huntington Beach–Newport Beach, Belmont Tunnel/Toluca Substation and Yard, Ontario and San Antonio Heights Railroad Company, Santa Ana, Orange & Tustin Street Railway, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy&oldid=999589124, Articles with incomplete citations from January 2017, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Articles with self-published sources from January 2017, Wikipedia introduction cleanup from October 2020, Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from October 2020, All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2020, Articles with disputed statements from March 2015, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2015, All Wikipedia articles needing clarification, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017, Articles with failed verification from January 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, In New York City, and other North American cities, the presence of restrictive legal agreements such as the, Streetcar lines were built using funds from private investors and were required to pay numerous taxes and. 6 automotive conspiracy theories rule 2 does not apply when replying to stickied. 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