Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- A brief primer on transit and urban development -- Atlanta : The city too busy to hate -- Boston : Urban institutions, megaprojects, and city revival -- Chicago : The Loop elevated, beloved steel eyesore -- Cincinnati : A short history of a never-used subway -- Cleveland : Transit and the perils of waterfront redevelopment -- Dallas : They don't build them like they used to -- Detroit : The city-suburban rift and the most useless transit system in the world -- Houston : The city of organic growth -- Los Angeles : 72 suburbs in search of a city -- Miami : Overpromise, underdeliver -- Minneapolis-St. Paul : The mob takeover of Twin City rapid transit -- Montreal : The metro as showcase megaproject -- New Orleans : How a big city grew into a small town -- New York City : The tortured history of the Second Avenue subway -- Philadelphia : How not to run a railroad -- Pittsburgh : How to make buses work -- Richmond : The first streetcar system -- Rochester : The only city to open a subway, then close it -- San Francisco : The view from Geary Street -- Seattle : Consensus through exhaustion -- Toronto : Subway line as political football -- Vancouver : An exceptional elevated -- Washington, DC : The freeway revolt and the creation of Metro -- Conclusion.

"Why is it that the mass transit systems of American cities are, by and large, inadequate? It's a common question and one that has generated substantial scholarship. But Jake Berman's The Lost Subways of North America offers a new way to consider it: a visual-and fun-journey through the past, present, and possible future of urban transit. Featuring Berman's own colorful maps of old, often forgotten streetcar lines, lost ideas for never-built transit, and modern rail systems, the book draws us into the fascinating transit histories of over 20 US and Canadian cities"-- Provided by publisher.