Turning automakers into transportationmakers

With Detroit’s automakers possibly going out to pasture, it’s suggested that they flip their production from automobiles to transportation and mass transit manufacturing. It could be their savior, and the city’s, too.Excerpt:But Mr. Udall recognized that the country could not afford the
economic consequences of losing all of the automobile industry’s jobs
and profits. He proposed that the auto companies branch out into
“exciting new variants of ground transportation” to produce minibuses,
“people movers,” urban mass transit and high-speed intercity trains.
Instead of expanding the Interstate highway system, he suggested that
the road construction industry take on “huge new programs to construct
mass transit systems.” And he called for building “more compact,
sensitively planned communities” rather than continuing urban sprawl.As
we now know, warnings like these went unheeded, and Americans became
ever more car-dependent. And now, the auto industry is asking for
government money that promises, even with more fuel-efficient cars, to
give us more of the same. Instead of supporting companies that want to
put as many cars on the road as possible, we need a transformational
strategy.Read the entire article here.