Streetcars

From the 1880s to at least the 1930s, streetcars provided the main means of transport in cities across the world. Horse-pulled and later electrically powered railways constituted the means by which many urban centers underwent an unprecedented physical and demographic expansion. Streetcars [Page 775]also redefined urban political culture, as some of the most intense local political struggles revolved around this key public service. Finally, electric streetcars, or “trolleys,” proved important culturally, emerging as a main signifier of urban modernity.

“Elevated car falls to street”—New York City, February 16, 1914

Source: George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress.

Horse- or mule-cars on rail, appearing by the 1850s, but especially the faster and more reliable trolleys in operation by the 1890s, greatly enlarged the area accessible on a daily basis to city residents, who previously either walked or rode horse carriages. Streetcars thus furthered residential flight toward peripheral areas, either to new suburbs or to old settlements now tied to the city. Also, networks of urban railways (which in some cases also transported freight goods) promoted the specialization of urban spaces according to distinct functions, such that residential, commercial, industrial, and leisure activities moved physically apart. This held true especially for North and South American cities; in contrast, European cities changed less dramatically either in terms of size or functional specialization.

How this major transport innovation shaped any given city had to do with its local politics. Because the streetcar provided a crucial public service to most city residents, the question of government regulation pulled many old and new constituencies, such as business elites, civic reformers, organized labor, and residential and consumer groups, into the political fold and thus invigorated mass-participation in politics. Equivalent to debates over railroads on the national level, streetcar politics revolved around the extent of governmental regulatory powers over private service providers. In the United States these remained fairly limited, whereas European and Latin American cities imposed stringent requirements, such as fare limits and working conditions for streetcar employees, or opted, mainly in the European case, for municipalization altogether.

A visible and omnipresent vehicle in the urban landscape, the streetcar signified the impact of technology on what were then rapidly transforming cities. It figured prominently in newspaper articles and illustrations, as well as in literary accounts. Streetcars became the harbingers of progress, but also became associated with the losses and dangers (such as deadly accidents) associated with modernity. In urban literature and film, such as works by Theodore Dreiser, Henry Roth, and Luis Buñuel, streetcars figured as the means of getting to know, of physically experiencing, urban agglomerations, whose perceived vastness otherwise seemed to escape the capacity of human imagination; passengers inside the trolley, meanwhile, formed an observable microcosm of highly diverse urban societies.

The streetcar era came to an end by the 1930s, as combustion-engine vehicles, both buses and automobiles, emerged as the dominant form of urban transportation. But depending on geography (the area covered by a given city), politics (the extent of public sector intervention in an increasingly unprofitable enterprise), and culture (residents' preferences), streetcars continue, and have recently returned, to shape city life.

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