4 ms·
Cable cars are a poor and misleading analogy for interoperability -- that is truly a difficult, one of a kind system, with significant mechanical and switching
by therealcamino 2y ago
Cable cars are a poor and misleading analogy for interoperability -- that is truly a difficult, one of a kind system, with significant mechanical and switching limitations that don't apply to streetcar systems.
For streetcar systems, by contrast, most cities used the standard PCC car from the mid-30s onward, with minor variations. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCC_streetcar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCC_streetcar
As for dangerous? During the multi-decade period in question, your link lists two accidents in the US. One is the crash of a gasoline tanker that also destroyed five buildings, which I don't think we can lay at the feet of the streetcar itself.
- legitster 2y agoThe reason there was a federal streetcar design in the first place was because of the well documented need for standardized equipment by that point. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Electric_Railways_Commission https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Electric_Railways_Co... By the 1920s, the tracks for many streetcars and interurbans were already being dismantled because there was no perceived utility to them - even for future rail systems. Very few of them would have been capable of even supporting the weight of a PCC streetcar. As for the danger, besides the well-publicized disasters, fatalities and accidents involving trolleys was a very well perceived danger of the time: https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-grim-reality-of-trolley-dodgers.html https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-grim-reality-of-troll...