Traffic in the 19th century New York moved at the ambling speed of horse-drawn cart, wagon and omnibus. The 
first mass transportation vehicle in America was called an omnibus. It looked like a stagecoach and was pulled by horses. The first omnibus to operate in America began running up and down Broadway in New York City in the year 1827.They carried 12 passengers for a 10 cents fare and were slow and overloaded (Homberger, p. 106). There had long been horse-drawn carriages in America to take people where they wanted to go. What was new and different about the omnibus was that it ran along a certain designated route and charged a very low fare. People who wanted to get on would wave their hand in the air. The driver sat on a bench on top of the omnibus at the front, like a stagecoach driver. When people who were riding inside wanted to get off the omnibus, they pulled on a little leather strap. The leather strap was connected to the ankle of the person who was driving the omnibus. Horse-drawn omnibuses ran in America cities from 1826 until about 1905. The first important improvement over the omnibus was the streetcar. Then was next step. Chudacoff says, and i am totally agree, that “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 cable car”(p88).