July-August_2021 - 6

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
Revisiting the Past
Understanding current challenges through the frame
of the past can offer much needed perspective on where
the industry has excelled and where it has lagged.
T
he death of Mass Transit Founder and original Editor/Publisher Charles
Carroll Carter in late May prompted a review of the magazine's first issues
from 1974. Each issue carried a theme covering policy, funding for
mass transit at the state level, lessons learned from abroad, how growing
cities were meeting the challenge of moving more people and examining
urban transportation development from the state capital viewpoint.
Archives of Susan Duke
As entertaining as it was to see old hairstyles and boxy models of buses, once I started
looking at the magazine's coverage, it struck me how the challenges and discussions from
47 years ago run surprisingly parallel to those occurring in 2021.
While there was zero talk of pandemics in 1974, there was discussion of electric buses.
From H.H. Flum's " Electric-power vehicles: A return from the eclipse " that appeared in the
November/December 1974 issue: " ...lead acid batteries store 35-50 kilowatt hours of energy
and weigh between 3,500 to 4,500 pounds; a 50-gallon fuel tank weighs about 400 pounds
and releases 50 times the equivalent BTU energy of a 4,000-pound battery...the 50-gallon fuel
tank yields about five times as much energy as the battery but weighs about 1/10 as much. "
There were surprises, such as the back cover, four-color ad from Gulf Oil Corporation
with a headline that read " It's time we made the choice. Mass transit, or mass confusion. "
The oil embargo leading to the 1973 energy crisis had lifted in March 1974 and the ad
encouraged readers to keep private automobiles out of cities stating, " We can no longer
afford to burn up millions of gallons of gasoline every day, just sitting in traffic jams. "
There were also jarring examples of less inclusive times. Pullman-Standard's full-page
ad encouraged finding the right modal balance by asking city officials and transit executives
what they needed. However, it carried the headline, " Ask the man who runs one " and
ended with this text, " In our concern for solutions, we must consider all modes. And we
should ask the men who run them. "
I'll end with a portion of a speech delivered by
" Our nation has to
develop urban mass
transit systems that
people want to use. "
President Gerald Ford that is as appropriate today as
when it was originally delivered at the 6th International
Conference on Transportation on Sept. 9, 1974:
" Our nation has to develop urban mass transit
systems that people want to use. Until we develop those
systems that offer convenience, comfort and reliability
expected from the automobiles that Americans have
been traditionally using, transit service even in our most
congested urban areas will continue to be under-used.
" Today, with modern methods of movement, we
have achieved miracles of mobility in America and in
many, many parts of the world. But we have to maintain
and expand the avenues of movement for all Americas,
young and old, rich and poor. "
Mischa Wanek-Libman, Editor
6 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | JULY/AUGUST 2021
Archives of Susan Duke
A GULF Oil Corporation
ad from 1974; this
ad ran on the back
cover of the magazine
from at least June to
December 1974.
AN AD from a 1974 back
issue of Mass Transit;
times have (thankfully)
changed.

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July-August_2021

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