According to Chudacoff, public transportation has been introduced in the mid-nineteenth century. The first vehicle was the omnibus which was, mostly accessible to the middle and the upper class because of the fare the passengers had to pay. As the years went buy, public transportations were getting better and better. “Perhaps the most important breakthrough in urban mass transportation occurred in the last quarter of the nineteenth century when innovators applied mechanical power to vehicles, beginning with the cable car.” (Chudacoff 83).
Picture of a cable car in the mid-nineteenth century (picture from google images)
The cable car was used first in San Francisco, until it spread rapidly in Chicago. The car is pulled along the track by an underground cable which was gripped to a lever in the front of the car. Each car has three brakes: the main one operates the lever in the front of the car; the food pedal in the front of the car operates the front wheel brake and the rear wheel brake operates the back of the car. The advantage of the cable car was that is was cleaner and faster. However, when there is a problem in the cable it induces traffic. “The cable car era lasted less than two decades.” (Chudacoff 84).