Although trains were still the backbone of cargo
transport during the 1920s, the use of trucks grew
for over-land carriage. The need for better trucks
and roads was felt more demandingly by the military.
Horses, cars, and buses used the same street space as
the electric trolleys. General Motors, in its campaign
to replace trolleys with buses, portrayed trolleys
as a public annoyance.
The war ended in 1918. Although the railroads were still dominant in the transport industry, with its share of 84 percent of intercity freight and 85 percent of all the passenger miles traveled by public carriers” (Mertins 13), the existing railroad system proved to be inadequate in many respects. Instead of improving the conditions of this system, government turned towards highway construction and transport by motor vehicles. The rapidly growing presence of oil and automotive industries in the roads, economy, and politics had major influence in this shift.
1920: Transportation Act of 1920 passed. This act was still largely concentrated on railroads as the primary transportation mode.
8.1 million passenger cars and over 1.1 million motor trucks were on the road (Mertins 15).
1921: Federal Highway Act of 1921 passed. This act put emphasize on improving and expanding the nation’s highways, country roads, bridges, and tunnels for motor vehicles.
By the end of the 1920s, the national funding for highways was increased to $200 million annually (from average of $75 million during early years of 1920s). There were 23 million registered cars and 3.5 million trucks on the roads (Mertins 14, 15). The automobile became a nation-wide symbol of success, freedom, comfort, and capability. Trucking business began to be a serious competitor for the railroad business. This competition, on the positive side, restrained the prices for the transport of goods.
1925: General Motors Co. bought Yellow Coach bus company, both of which were to play significant roles in dismantling and replacing electric street cars (trolleys) in major U.S. cities.
Suburbs began to encircle center cities. Initially they followed electric street car (trolley) and train lines. By the end of 1920s, however, suburbs began to shape in a center-less fashion as they sprang up where the automobile reached. "Between 1922 and 1929, new homes were built on the edges of every major city at the rate of 883,000 per year, more than twice that of any previous seven-year period" (Gillham 30).