The Invention of Buses

ssurprisetalk 3 days ago 13 commentsRead Article on worksinprogress.co

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InsideOutSanta•1 day ago

The last stagecoach traveled over the Gotthardpass in the Swiss Alps in 1881, steered by Alois Zgraggen. There's a song about him that ends with:

Now I no longer travel southward,

and I pray to God: My Lord, grant me rest soon,

I’m no good for anything here anymore,

so if you would be merciful to me, let me soon pass through Heaven’s gate.

I’m no good for anything here anymore, so if you would be merciful to me,

let me soon pass through Heaven’s gate.

Then, when you call,

O God, I’ll sing merrily atop the wagon seat:

“Giddy-up, my Liesel, gently now, at an easy pace!”

rob74•1 day ago

Interestingly enough, stagecoaches are called "Postkutsche" in German-speaking countries (because they also carried mail), and Switzerland's regional buses ("PostBus") are still operated by a subsidiary of the Swiss Post: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostBus_Switzerland. So some ideas live longer than you might expect...

Something similar also exists in Austria and is still called "Postbus", although it's been operated by the national railway company since 2003.

lukyanovic•1 day ago

Could you share the German title of the song?

croisillon•1 day ago

seems to be "Der letzte Postillion" https://www.deutsche-lieder-online.de/der-letzte-postillion-...

lifeisstillgood•1 day ago

So the interesting thread through history for me was the comment on Damascus - the streets were built with houses close together and therefore carriages could not pass each other (and presumably barely in single file)

It was not possible to run a bus service until the roads were widened.

What caused that Inwonder?

In London the fire of 1666 presumably meant streets were made wider (to prevent spread of fire) - but why in Paris? New York was designed as a grid. Was this just a reaction to “urgh, we don’t want to be tired old cities like Damascus so they built wider streets?)

Was it the need to drive traffic through to supply urban areas and take out manufactured goods?

Was it better sanitation?

almcd•1 day ago

For Paris, the renovations overseen by Georges-Eugène Haussmann between 1853 and 1870 shaped much of the centre of Paris. Overcrowding and sanitation were publicly cited as the main motives for this renovation, although social control was also a factor with the new boulevards deliberately being designed to enable suppression of street-level insurrection.

InitialLastName•about 20 hours ago

To expand, the various governments running Paris had a big issue in the early and mid- 19th century with urban insurrections being able to hamper military movement by setting up barricades across streets. There are multiple revolutions and major insurrections that were able to establish strongholds and fortified, highly defensible areas out neighborhoods by building walls out of furniture and debris.

It's much harder to block a military column from advancing down a 200' wide boulevard than down a 20'-alley.

euroderf•about 8 hours ago

Nowadays potential insurrections are starved by population dispersion into low-density areas, like suburbs. It's getting hard to form an angry mob.

MisterTea•about 20 hours ago

> Ancient urban fabric of Damascus. Very few of these roads are wide enough for a carriage, and none is wide enough for two carriages to pass each other.

This stood out as I immediately thought "How the heck did they move building materials and other large items around?" Though I guess the likely answer is by hand or some kind of wheeled cart.

kj4211cash•1 day ago

It's interesting that taxis and shared vehicles came so many years before buses. Also interesting to think about through the lens of aviation. I wonder how soon after we had powered flight someone launched a commercial fixed route service. And how much economics has to do with all of this.

fsckboy•about 19 hours ago

another similar "business model" for transportation also did not get invented till "late": a "packet ship" is a ship that sails between ports on a schedule, independent of whether it's fully loaded. I don't know why it's a packet boat, not a big deal but I read a lot of seafaring books as a kid and it was always ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_boat

stringfood•about 20 hours ago

"Wheeled vehicles existed for 5,000 years before someone thought of running a bus service."

Buses weren't economic until the invention of the ICE

DerekL•about 14 hours ago

The article says that horse-drawn buses were successful.