1900 Tram Ride Through England
 

Here’s another good video on how the carfree life was over 100 years ago. Unlike the other videos I posted, this one really shows what it was like to live without motor traffic. There are NO cars at all and it’s strange watching the tram travel without seeing any parked cars!

What really surprises me is watching all the children playing in the streets. Unless there’s a street fair where the blocks are corded off, you’ll never see anything like this. I really feel children today will never know what it was to just play in the streets without the fear of getting struck by motor traffic.

You’ll see a small number of cyclist in the movie which was to be expected. However, if this was 1900, the price of a bicycle was almost as much as a motorcycle or more! There’s even a man teaching his son to ride a bicycle right in front of the tram!

It’s refreshing to see the potential possibilities.

https://youtu.be/UxrTfLn_Nv8

Great video, Steve, thanks for posting. This was the epitome of non-automotive transportation. London was the largest and wealthiest city in the world at the time, and was functioning very well without cars.

People on this forum will be quick to say that the cities were choking on horse manure, but that is nowhere evident in this video (mainly because it isn't true!) People here will also talk about how horrible living conditions were at the time. Maybe so, but that had absolutely nothing to do with the absence of cars. The people in this video look reasonably clean and happy, and they're noticeably fitter and peppier than their modern counterparts.

that is a great piece of history. Was the guy riding a bike at 3:00 in drunk or just learning to ride?

I wondered the same thing!

+100000000

I also want to add that even though the roads looked in bad shape, it didn't matter because the tram was on smooth rails. Cities did not need to spend millions fixing roads because there was no need. We are all paying for the never ending repavement of local roads through property taxes or rent.

Roads have to be smoother when you are travelling at 40-60 than 4-6 mph. People's expectations were lower. Go out in the country and you'd find deep ruts in the mud.

I am aware of the poor condition of our roads. I ride the buses each day and they take a pounding on the roads and sometimes the shock is so great, going over the pot holes sound like an explosion! If we still had the trolleys, this would not be an issue but our roads today especially in cities look very similar to this video.

In 1900, we had smooth and comfortable public transit. I can tell you right now we have lost that with the bus!

Must be a regional thing. I ride the bus here without any drama over bumps in the road.

Yes, and you mentioned on another thread that the roads are great where you live. You're very fortunate! You probably have competent state and local governments that understand the importance of funding good travel infrastructure.

But I have to tell you that this is not the case in most of the USA. In many states, roads have been neglected at least since the Great Recession, and many even decades before that. Here in Michigan, for example, we had the best roads in the world in the last century. Today, they are little better than Swiss cheese.

Our roads are definitely not as tasty as yours!

I wish ours were more like deli turkey--smooth but not that greasy. :)

I watched the video again and noticed something different. At 28 seconds into the film, there was a beautiful home the tram passed on it’s trip. I was thinking, how horrible it must have been to live in that estate without a car. LOL.

A lot of times, motor centrist truly believe that life was miserable without motor transport. Yet, look at all the homes and that estate in particular and tell me if this was hard living. More important, look at the faces of all those children. Probably not a single one of them had access to a car.

Am I to assume no one else has read Carlton Reid's book, "Roads were not built for cars. He has a different take on the condition of roads even in London.

This has probably been posted before. Market Street in San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake.

It's interesting how every vehicle is going at a fast walking pace. Cable cars, horse wagons, cars, bikes, pedestrians. So they all just make their own path. (A few cars near the end are speeders, going 15 or 20 mph)

Modern bicyclists would be way too fast for this road. But maybe the cobblestones would slow them down to match everyone else.

I'm going to get that book! Maybe the League of American Wheelman should have left the roads as they were. Little did they know those same roads they fought for would be mostly taken away from them for the benefit motor transport.

This video is well known all over the world and was a feature news article. One person actually spend months reading newspapers on microfilm to find out who made that film. It was a good story.

You'll notice how even in 1906, the motorist were out of control making the streets dangerous for everyone. It seems like things never change.

Those of us who are carfree are living life similar to that video in 2015.

Here's another interesting tram ride After the 1906 earthquake, I find it interesting that the cable car was still working! A tram system with electrical wires would have been out of commission for weeks. You know what's also missing? Most of the cars are not to be found or the cyclist! In fact, the roads are so bad, the cars and horse carts are riding on the tram tracks!

With all the gas stations out of service, thousands of people are left walking. It goes to show you vulnerable our auto based culture was over 100 years ago. It still hasn't changed today.


https://youtu.be/i-rP7pRPSDI