City Life - Public Transportation

 Ethan Zweig

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

April 29, 2022

History of City Public Transportation

Transportation is a major part of city history. It leads people to their destination whether it’s work, restaurants, or home. Public transportation started in the 1820s in France and London with the introduction of the omnibus and a horse drawn car which could hold up to 10 people. In 1873 the city of San Francisco tested their first of many cable cars. Due to the rolling hills there, Andrew Smith Hallidie was inspired to create this form of transportation to make sure the poor horses weren’t overly exhausted by climbing up those steep hills. In 1890 the first railway in the form of a metropolitan railway on what would become the London Underground. The first rapid transit system in the United States was built a few years later in 1892 in Chicago - the “L” train still runs today. Boston, Massachusetts opened the first subway system in the U.S 1897 to avoid severe weather conditions. 1922 led to the introduction of the motorbus, which rapidly changed the speed of passengers getting to their destination. All of these new forms of public transportation became really helpful in a lot of major cities in the world. These systems are still used today in a lot of those cities and there are still new forms of public transportation being made like, taxis, uber, and lyft.