In the U.S., stats show less driving, more transit use

Reuters discusses the decline in American automobile dependence and the concurrent rise in public transportation ridership.

"[It's] as if people... started a new travel behavior, a new habit. And they have stuck with their habit."

The southern auto industry

A piece from the Christian Science Monitor discusses the rise of non-union auto manufacturing plants in the south, including a Kia plant in West Point, Georgia*.
Excerpts:

The US auto industry is throwing bolts, but here in Georgia's Chattahoochee Valley a South Korean car company is building a massive new manufacturing plant along the new Kia Parkway, replacing abandoned textile mills.
...
The expansion of this "other" auto industry – one that's foreign-owned, nonunion, and based largely in the South – stands in stark contrast to this week's dire reports from America's own Big Three, whose CEOs laid out plans for a dramatic downsizing before traveling to Washington to plead for $34 billion in federal aid.

...
A prevalent right-to-work philosophy isn't the only reason foreign companies like Toyota have located plants in the South. There's also the proximity to a car-loving region with little mass transit and a population that totals that of the Midwest and New England combined.

* I find it interesting that while West Point, GA is building a Kia plant, the Athens Kia dealership closed recently.

Bailing out transit killers

Harvey Wasserman summarizes the gruesome history of how GM put the kibosh on mass transit development.

Excerpt:

GM responded to the 1970s gas crisis by handing over the American market to energy-efficient Toyota and Honda.

GM met the rise of the hybrids with "light trucks."

GM built a small electric car, leased a pilot fleet to consumers who loved it, and then forcibly confiscated and trashed them all.

GM now wants to market a $40,000 electric Volt that looks like a cross between a Hummer and a Cadillac and will do nothing to meet the Solartopian needs of a green-powered Earth.

For this alone, GM's managers should never be allowed to make another car, let alone take our tax money to stay in business.

But there is also a trillion-dollar skeleton in GM's closet.

This is the company that murdered our mass transit system.