Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology

by Robert C. Post

This volume in the Greenwood Technographies series covers urban mass transit - that is, the technologies that allow cities to move large numbers of people around. Just a few hundred years ago, the size of cities was limited by the time it took people to move from one part of the city to another. The development of successive technologies has forever altered the urban landscape. From horse-drawn omnibuses to subways to current light-rail, this volume highlights the technological and social struggles that have accompanied urbanization and the need for an efficient and cost-effective means of transportation in cities.

Genres: Nonfiction, Transport

200 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2006

About the author

Robert Post is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He served as the School's 16th dean from 2009 until 2017. Before coming to Yale, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

In well under 200 pages, this is a pretty good explanation of the technical, political, and social history of American mass transit--focusing on the streetcar, as that was the major form for decades. Horsecars, cable cars, streetcars, trackless trolleys, buses, subways, light rail, and other types of transit are discussed. Since I've only previously read specifically about the Chicago Transit Authority, I learned quite a bit about how transit developed around North America (and a little about Europe). For instance, that buses were a major part of American mass transit much earlier than I realized. And of course I love the pictures of old streetcars!

[Alan Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, not because it was a great piece of literature, but because it was chock full of new facts about the evolution of transit between 1800 and now. Incredibly well researched and straightforward, it scratched my history itch, and explained some unknowns in the process. I have a lot of dogears to process.