Certainly, but that was also a time when if you didn't want your date or mate to eat dirt, you rode to town on the streetcars.
GM and Companies, did get into trouble with the Courts, and ended up getting their hands slapped. Most only paid token fines. Cleveland managed to win some serious jail time after the infamous photo of their National City Lines exec handing a pay check to the local streetcar company in front of burning streetcars.
Jacksonville took quite a different path, we got a new exclusive distribution center for all GM products. Tampa's City Council all got brand new LaSalle Automobiles.
What streetcar brings to the table today in some 70 cities, is Billions of dollars of new infill development. This is happening in Norfolk right now in spite of the economic times. Streetcars can be vintage or modern or a mix of both, but a vintage system can play both transit and attraction roles.
OCKLAWAHA