Urban Transportation :: essays research papers

The development of urban transportation has not changed with the cities; cities have changed with transportation. In the early years of transportation it was the mass transit of horse and buggies or electric rail cars that shaped cities. Then as the automobile became affordable to the public, personal transportation redefined the city as it was known. It is the automobile and the movement to the suburbs that has public transportation struggling to make money today. The very first transportation was with the horse. Then someone came up with the idea to pair a horse up with a buggy. Now four to six people could be carried at one time. These horse and buggies began to be common sight in cities and public transportation was born. Before the horse and buggy people were confined to the distance they could walk, so cities could not grow much. People lived in the central business district because that is where they worked. Now with the simple horse and buggy, people that can afford the transportation can move a mile or two out of the central city (Guathier 174).The big explosion of growth and increased ridership came at the turn of the century. The cause of this explosion was the electric streetcars that were installed in many cities. Whichever direction the rail lines were laid down and the streetcar moved, people began building their homes in that direction. The automobile was just getting its beginning and people were depending on public transportation to get them to work. As the streetcar's tracks expanded east and west, the city's population shifted that way as well. People did not need to be in walking distance of their workplace anymore, but in walking distance of the nearest pickup point of the streetcars (Guathier 175). As streetcars increased their length of lines and service, the public increased their choices of residential locations. People with higher incomes were able to move out of the central part of cities and into outer areas (Guathier 174). This also fostered the concentration of different ethnic groups within separate neighborhoods (Guathier 175). This separation reversed the intermingling that had been taking place during the late 1800's between various economic groups and the different ethnic groups in the cities. Social stratification and sorting of different groups throughout the city was rapidly increased thanks to the streetcar spreading out the cities (Guathier 175).As cities spread out in the early 1900's, railroads developed interurban and suburban railroad to connect the outlying areas of the city.