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Transportation Deployment Casebook/2021/New York

Overview
A streetcar is a rail-based vehicle that provides passenger transportation in metropolitan areas using tracks that are positioned within the roadway. Streetcars typically comprise a single-unit carriage and are an electrified means of conveyance, with electrical power transmitted to the system either through overhead wires or through the tracks. They are most widely employed within dense urban regions to transport both daily commuters and recreational travellers, with capacities ranging from 20 to 70 riders depending on the carriage’s size and configuration.

At their commercial advent in the late 1880s, streetcars were viewed as revolutionary within the mass transit landscape. Their electricity-based design was a vast improvement on existing horse-drawn vehicles as it afforded the mode better speed, quietness, comfortability (eg. eliminated horse waste and odours) and efficiency, as well as the ability to offer reasonable fare prices. The efficiency and low-cost of the streetcar made it highly popular among the middle-class, which subsequently enabled commuters to live further away from the city centre in "streetcar suburbs".

Urban transit forms prior to the streetcar
At the turn of the 19th century, Manhattan had established itself to be a rapidly densifying harbour city, however transportation to the surrounding settlements of Brooklyn and Paulus Hook (now Jersey City) was constrained to water-based methods. As a result, there was heightened demand for more efficient forms of water-based transportation.

Following the success of the first local steamboat service between Paulus Hook and Manhattan in 1812, Robert Fulton and William Cutting established the New York and Brooklyn Steamboat Ferry Association and commenced regular passenger services between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The introduction of steam-propelled ferry services proved popular as they greatly improved on the speed and capacity of the preceding horse-powered alternative, and by the early 1860s, the New York harbour ferry system supported an annual ridership of 32 million people across more than twenty routes. However, while the steam ferry’s rapid rise to prominence facilitated urban expansion which would have otherwise been impeded by the Hudson River and East River, it did little to alleviate the growing demand for land-based mass transit as urban communities concurrently observed substantial population growth and densification.

Abraham Brower - a stagecoach operator - capitalised on the increasing need for land-based transit options by introducing the first horse-drawn omnibus to New York in 1827. Originating in France during the early 1820s, the omnibus was a horse-drawn carriage that provided a local transportation service along a fixed route for the general public at a set price. Brower’s initial services operated along Broadway, had a capacity of approximately 12 passengers and cost 24 cents per ride. By the end of the 1830s, New York’s omnibuses had grown increasingly popular, resulting in both large companies and small independent operators managing hundreds of omnibuses across numerous routes throughout the city. Omnibuses subsequently spread to other major cities in the state of New York, including Albany in the 1840s. However, the omnibus possessed several limitations. First, omnibuses were frequently characterised by their non padded seats, lack of ventilation and impolite drivers. The uncomfortability of the ride was further exacerbated by the poor condition of city streets, which were often unpaved or made of rough cobblestone. Second, the cost of a single ride was too expensive for the average resident (at an average of 12 cents) and the speed of omnibus services were often less than 5 miles per hour - not much faster than fast-paced walk. Consequently, while New York City featured one of the most expansive omnibus networks, the mode was only patronised by about one in thirty residents, servicing only 25,000 riders per day. Nevertheless, the omnibus prompted a “riding habit” in a small number of middle class commuters, substituting walking as the main form of local transportation.

In 1832, the New York and Harlem Railroad Company sought to address the limitations of the omnibus by creating a more comfortable and economic mode of urban transit. Initially, the company proposed the implementation of a commercial steam railway that would connect Harlem and lower Manhattan but concerns of smoke, noise and other dangers for adjacent suburbs caused the city to restrict the operation of steam engines within the residential neighbourhoods. Consequently, the New York and Harlem Railroad Company introduced the horse streetcar, or “horsecar”. The horsecar was a horse-drawn, rail-based vehicle that operated in the city street’s right-of-way. By utilising the low friction offered by rails, the horsecar improved on the omnibus by being smoother, faster (travelling at 8 mph instead of 5 mph) and more a efficient use of horse power (able use the equivalent horse labour to transport 30-40 passengers compared to the omnibus’s capacity of 12-15). Other features included a more spacious interior with easier to access exits. Significantly, the horsecar’s increased efficiency and capacity resulted in decreased operating costs and thus cheaper passenger fares (from 12 cents omnibus fare to 5 cents horsecar fare). While horsecars were quickly popularised in New York City due to their operating advantages, the concept was not utilised in other major American cities until the 1850s. This delayed establishment also applied to other cities in the state of New York, with Albany, Rochester and Syracuse not implementing horsecar lines until the early 1860s. In comparison, by 1860, there were fourteen horsecar lines in Manhattan that transported more than 38 million riders annually, in addition to the existing omnibus patronage.

Towards the mid 1800s, many major metropolitan regions in the state of New York - most notably Manhattan - were congested with a multitude of private carriages, horse-drawn omnibuses, horsecars, hackney carriages and pedestrians. Specifically, the routes between the docks along the Hudson River and downtown Broadway were frequently gridlocked as merchandise was transported between the ships and city centre. Despite the implementation of an elevated rapid transit service (known as the “Els”) in New York City in 1870s, the city streets remained heavily congested. In addition to the congestion, the heavy reliance on horse-power in the omnibus and horsecar resulted in other challenges. Horse maintenance was costly as owners had to consider ongoing stabling, tack and medical costs, and horses typically only worked for a maximum of five years. Further, the commonality of horse-powered vehicles resulted in large quantities of horse faecal waste on city streets, exposing residents to unpleasant odours and diseases, such as cholera and tetanus. Frequent outbreaks of disease were also common in horses, the most notable being the equine influenza outbreak in 1872 which suspended approximately 95% of horse labour in the city for a period of weeks and disrupted horse-drawn transit. Ultimately, by the 1870s, it was clear that there was a need for a more economic and reliable form of street-level transit.

Invention of the streetcar
The electric streetcar evolved from its mass transit antecedents - the stagecoach, omnibus, horse-drawn streetcar and cable car - and was born out of the demand for a more efficient and comfortable transportation mode, facilitated by key technological innovations throughout the 19th century.

Several early electric vehicle prototypes emerged following Thomas Davenport’s invention of the battery-powered direct current (DC) electric motor in 1934, including Robert Davidson’s four-wheeled carriage electric locomotive, ‘Galvani’ (1842), and Charles Grafton Page’s electromagnetic locomotive (1951). While these early prototypes proved electricity to be a successful means of propelling vehicles, they relied on batteries as the source of electrical current and thus were infeasible to implement commercially due to the high associated costs. It was ultimately the ensuing improvements in electrical generation technology and the electric traction motor that enabled the practical application of electricity to transportation to become realised.

Specifically, the development of the dynamo by Antonio Pacinotti, Werner Von Siemens and Charles Wheatstone, Zenobe Gramme and Charles F. Brush during the 1860s and 1870s led to the first practical electrical generator capable of delivering commercial quantities of DC power. In 1883, Leo Daft implemented the dynamo in his electric locomotive to produce the first commercial forerunner of the modern electric streetcar. The design utilised a pre-existing horsecar rail and two dynamos that provided DC power to the electric traction motors via a third, electrified rail. While Daft’s electric locomotive successfully began commercial service in Baltimore in 1885 and achieved a patronage of approximately 29,000 passengers per month, the 220 volt system frequently electrocuted small animals and livestock and was subsequently reverted back to horse-power.

Concurrently to Daft’s progress, inventors Edward Bentley and Walter Knight trialled an electric car in Cleveland, powered by subterranean wooden conduits with two copper-wire conductors; however frequent breakdowns resulted in the project being abandoned by 1885. In 1886, Charles van Depoele modified the electrical distribution system to produce the first electric vehicle powered by an electrical current running through overhanging wires and a spring-loaded trolley pole in Montgomery, Alabama. While van Depoele’s invention was met with great success, limitations in funding constrained his capacity to make improvements. As a result, it was Frank Sprague’s developments throughout the 1880s that ushered in the electric streetcar era.

Sprague made improvements to Thomas Edison's system of DC electricity distribution, van Depoele’s spring-loaded trolley pole and the existing electrical traction motors. Notably, his non-sparking traction motor with fixed brushes that could maintain a constant speed under varying load would permanently evolve the electric vehicle movement. From 1887 to 1888, Sprague implemented his electric streetcar system in Richmond, Virginia, which found rapid success as it demonstrated that electric vehicles could be economical, reliable and safe. Subsequently, 90% of the streetcars systems in the United States utilised Sprague’s patents by 1900.

Early market development
In New York state, the electric streetcar found its birthplace in New York City. The streetcar provided a faster, cheaper and more comfortable mode of transit in comparison to the city’s existing omnibus and horsecar alternatives. At a cost of 5 cents per fare, the streetcar offered improved comforts and speed to the equally priced horsecar, and was significantly more affordable compared to the omnibus (12 cents per fare), leading to its popularity among middle class urban residents.

The streetcar further expanded the market for mass forms of urban transportation by facilitating the daily commute of people that lived in the city’s outer suburbs. Where horsecars and omnibuses were typically constrained to residents of the inner city, the rapid expansion of the streetcar system enabled newfound mobility of suburban communities, eventually resulting in the growth of “streetcar suburbs '' along the line.

In addition, streetcar operators encouraged travel for leisure by establishing parks, hotels, race tracks, amusement centres, beaches and bars at the line’s terminus. New York City’s Coney Island, located in Brooklyn’s furthest southern corner, was one of the most notable examples of this practice as it offered guests numerous spectacles and attractions suitable for all ages.

Legislation
In the United States, there was limited state or national urban transit regulation for the majority of the 19th century. It was not until the end of the 1800’s that a federal, legal precedent for the transit industry was set. In 1887, Congress introduced the Interstate Commerce Act to curb the discriminatory and monopolistic practices that had become common in the railroad industry following its rapid expansion during the Civil War. While this legislation had minimal impact on intracity transit, it was the first instance of the Federal government’s involvement in transportation matters.

Franchising
Until the late 19th century, most transit regulation in the United States was developed and administered by local jurisdictions. Local governments quickly recognised the opportunity to tax for-profit transit operators (at the time, omnibus and horsecar operators) for their use of publicly owned streets, leading to the introduction of the “franchise”. In New York City, the Common Council would grant franchises to private companies to provide transit services within designated areas.

The franchise system facilitated a decentralised mechanism for regulating operators, whereby franchise agreements would contain required terms of operation that would ultimately serve to control the industry. While these terms would set the fare price (typically at 5 cents) and designated area of service, they were otherwise relatively limited in scope and nature; for example, additional terms included that streetcar operators pave the street in between tracks to protect it from damage and carry police and firemen for free. Outside of franchise agreements, transit operators were largely free of regulatory intervention, with the private operators being independently responsible for the investment and operation of their respective line. By the time the streetcar was introduced, this decentralised approach to regulation had led to a complex franchise system characterised by intense competition among operators. Consequently, a consolidated and standardised streetcar system was never established, resulting in inconsistent track sizes, timetables, fares and quality standards of rolling stock which led to critical operational inefficiencies.

Implementation and growth
After its successful launch in Virginia in 1888, New York City planned to implement the electric streetcar in Manhattan within the year, however a powerful blizzard caused significant delays to the system’s implementation. Because Manhattan utilised overhead wires strung from poles to carry its electricity and phone services, the blizzard of 1888 led to extensive electrical failures throughout the city as electric lines and poles collapsed from the weight of ice and snow. As a result, New York City mandated that all utilities in Manhattan, including streetcar wires, were to be subterranean. Consequently, a modified electric streetcar system was designed for the city. This Manhattan-specific system comprised a slot in between two adjacent, running rails, in which the slot contained two additional rails that carried electricity. Each streetcar was designed with a “plow” affixed to the vehicle that would collect electricity from the slot. Significantly, the impacts of this specialised system included a delay in the streetcar’s advent in New York City, and a considerable increase in construction expense as the underground electric rail system cost between three and ten times the price of traditional rails. Despite the construction delay, the electric streetcar made its debut in New York City in 1890 with the electrification of the Coney Island Avenue Line.

Aside from this postponement, the electric streetcar was rapidly adopted in New York City and was considered a radical advancement in transit technology. Its efficiency and low fare cost encouraged ridership for both routine (eg. work and education) and non-routine (eg. leisure) travel - in fact, weekend patronage was found to significantly exceed working days. Streetcar operators encouraged this leisure travel by establishing parks, hotels, race tracks, amusement centres and bars at the line’s terminus (see ‘Early Market Development’ above), subsequently embedding the streetcar in New York’s social landscape. As the streetcar’s popularity grew, so did its infrastructure. By the 1910s, New York City’s streetcar system was over 1,900 kilometres long, far exceeding the size of other major cities around the world. The expansiveness of the streetcar, as well as its reasonable 5 cent fare, further enabled the mobilisation of suburban New Yorkers, resulting in greater spatial distribution of economic activity and reducing the need for commuters to reside within the inner city.

The impact of policy on growth
A likely factor in the streetcar’s rapid growth in New York City was the legislative obstacle faced by the locomotive industry. In 1839, the boiler of a locomotive exploded in New York City, causing the engineer’s death and the injury of twenty passengers. This event, in combination with other more minor accidents, resulted in widespread fear of large steam engines and subsequent mobs and riots against the presence of locomotives in the densely populated areas of the city. In response to residents’ concerns, Manhattan and Brooklyn quickly banned locomotives from highly populous areas of the city.

A similar situation arose in the mid-1910s with the introduction of the jitney. Jitneys were privately owned automobiles that were used as a means of unlicensed, unregulated and untaxed public transportation (equivalent to the modern taxi). While jitneys grew popular for their flexibility and novelty, established transit companies viewed them as unfair competition that threatened their solvency, and thus pressured lawmakers to ban their operation within the city and state. As a result, Chapter 667 of the Laws of 1915 was passed, which effectively prohibited the operation of jitneys within the limits of a city in New York. This enabled the streetcar industry in New York to continue to thrive as the predominant form of public transportation until the 1930s.

The impact of franchise on growth
As the franchise system was firmly established prior to the advent of the streetcar, many existing horsecar operators were well-suited to adopt the new technology as they already possessed access to the city’s streets and rails. Consequently, streetcar operators proliferated. As previously discussed, franchise agreements were the primary mechanism used to control and regulate the industry due to the decentralised nature of the streetcar system (see ‘Policy in the birthing phase’). These agreements were relatively simple, typically only setting requirements for fare price, area of service and term of operations. Other operational considerations, such as rolling stock, rail type and timetable were not managed under these agreements. Consequently, with limited regulation, New York’s streetcar industry quickly grew into a complex and unstandardised system characterised by intense competition.

Maturity
Due to the lack of standardisation, New York’s streetcars experienced significant operational inefficiencies (see ‘Policy in the birthing phase’). These challenges led to frequent bankruptcies and subsequent takeovers or outright abandonments. Some large conglomerates found significant financial success into the early 1900s - such as the Metropolitan Street Railway, which profited approximately $100 million USD from 1893 to 1902 - as they used the decline of independent operators to expand and consolidate their respective streetcar empires. However, the cycle of bankruptcy, takeovers and abandonments largely continued until the early 20th century, transforming the streetcar industry into a convoluted oligopoly that never experienced prolonged stability and success.

By the 1910s, Manhattan’s intercity transit system was dominated by two entities: the New York Railways Company and the Third Avenue Railway Company. Through a complex series of subsidiary takeovers and corporate consolidations, the New York Railways had inherited the largest streetcar system in New York, with eight wholly-owned properties and eight leased companies. However, the New York Railways Company made crucial errors in its efforts to systematise its complicated network of lines. First, in an attempt to consolidate properties, New York Railways leased a number of its properties to independent operators, realising too late that the leased lines were some of their most profitable. This led to a costly lease termination process to return the lines to whole ownership. Second, New York Railways ordered 293 rollstock that had a new door system designed to expedite the boarding and alighting of passengers. However, this new configuration was less efficient than the original, and additionally required two operators to man the carriage to effectively collect fares. The last significant financial mistake came with the attempt to convert four lines to battery power, which included the purchase of 70 new battery-powered rollstock. Unfortunately, the battery-operated lines failed to succeed and were quietly abandoned in 1919. This series of financial missteps led to the New York Railways Company falling into receivership in 1919, to eventually be purchased by the Omnibus Corporation and return in 1925 as the New York Railways Corporation. However, by this time the era of the motor bus was beginning, and the Omnibus Corporation - a General Motors subsidiary - intended to replace its streetcar properties with buses.

Decline
There were three primary determinants in the eventual downfall of the streetcar in New York, including:

 * Inflation pressures caused by World War I
 * Introduction of the automobile
 * Introduction of the motor bus.

Inflation pressures caused by World War I
In the mid-1910s, inflation pressures associated with World War I induced significant increases in cost for both labour and material. Due to the privatised nature of the streetcar industry, the heightened capital expense became a significant obstacle to financial stability, particularly as many streetcar operators were unable to correspondingly raise their fare price due to the common five cent fare term within franchise agreements. As streetcar companies lost profitability, stock prices of the industry declined and thus operators were unable to raise the funds necessary for technological improvements and modernisations.

Introduction of the automobile
The gradual decline in streetcar ridership corresponded to the rapid expansion of the automobile industry. American entrepreneurs focused on creating economical motor vehicles that could be mass produced, and by 1908 there were two dozen American manufacturers selling affordable automobiles. The automobile was advertised as a symbol of the American dream, representing independence and opportunity for ownership. With the middle class’ increasing access to the automobile, public sentiment towards the streetcar and other transit modes began to wane as its users preferred the individual freedom provided by the automobile. In addition to evolving public perceptions, the automobile industry was backed by powerful private interest groups, comprising oil companies, tire manufacturers and dealers, part suppliers and road builders, who successfully lobbied policymakers for taxpayer subsidies to improve roads and reduce parking restrictions. As the road was considered a public good, lobbyists argued that taxpayer subsidies were justified, and would further serve to increase property values (and thus property tax revenues) along developed roadways. While there is some speculation as to whether it was the economic proposition or political influence that ultimately swayed lawmakers, public financial aid was ultimately made available to improve roads for the rise of automobiles. This starkly contrasted the government’s approach to the streetcar industry, as the private, mass transit industry was largely viewed as undeserving of government support and intervention. Consequently, while the automobile industry flourished, mass transit struggled to stay afloat. By 1910, American urban transit was being outperformed by European rivals, which had invested in more aesthetically pleasing designs (sans overhead wires) and had seen a rapid growth in ridership.

Introduction of the bus
New York City was the first city that established an extensive bus system, with the first battery-powered bus operationalised in 1902 (which proved unreliable) and the first motor bus operationalised in 1905. The debut of this first motor bus - owned and operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company - was met with great success, and within a few years 132 of Fifth Avenue’s buses had substituted all horse-drawn omnibuses within New York City. The motor bus offered significant operational efficiencies in comparison to the streetcar, as it did not rely on rails or external wires, and could therefore navigate city streets with reduced risk of delays caused by infrastructure obstructions. The motor bus also had greater flexibility to serve suburban areas beyond existing streetcar lines and was more economical in longer routes, and thus by 1925 it had started to replace streetcars in New York City’s outer suburbs. It also improved upon existing horse-drawn vehicles by offering a more efficient, sustainable, reliable, comfortable and hygienic alternative. The novelty of the motor bus also contributed to its warm public reception as it was viewed as a revolutionary and modern mode of transit in comparison to the increasingly neglected streetcars.

The public’s positive perception of the bus likely influenced local government officials, including then New York City mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia. Mayor LaGuardia saw the buses as the mass transit mode of the future and sought to encourage the replacement of streetcars with buses within the city. To this end, in the early 1930s Mayor LaGuardia started a campaign to replace the Els and streetcar lines in Manhattan with motor buses. In response to the threat of obsolescence, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company - which operated the majority of Brooklyn’s streetcars - investigated whether a hybrid transit vehicle would be feasible. This led to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company’s conversion of numerous trolley lines to trolley-bus operations in 1930. The trolley-bus was electrically powered by overhead wires but did not require rails, which granted it greater manoeuvrability in traffic while simultaneously being cheaper to operate then motor buses at the time. However, the non-railed design allowed the trolley-bus to frequently deviate from the overhead wires and consequently detach the trolley pole, causing costly and time consuming re-attachment efforts. Similarly to the streetcar, the overhead wires were considered visually unpleasant and eventually their removal became a staple of local political campaigns. Ultimately, the trolley-bus only survived a few years more than its streetcar counterpart.

The decline of the streetcar was further exacerbated by the actions of General Motors, which has since become the topic of the widely rumoured General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy. As previously mentioned (see ‘Maturity’ above), General Motors purchased the failed New York Railways Company and operated it from 1926 under its subsidiary, the Omnibus Corporation, with the intent of converting its streetcar empire into motor buses. In addition to this acquisition, General Motors purchased numerous abandoned and nearly-bankrupt streetcar lines in the city. By 1939, only approximately 542 kilometres of streetcar lines remained in the city, in comparison to its peak in 1919 of approximately 2163 kilometres.

By the late 1960s, all of New York state’s streetcar and trolley-bus services had been made obsolete and removed. Other cities in New York, including Buffalo, Albany, Rochester and Syracuse saw their streetcars slowly replaced by buses from the mid-1920s to the mid-1950s. Ultimately, the decentralisation, minimal regulation and poor rationalisation of New York’s streetcar industry resulted in an uncoordinated system that failed to provide a fiscally-sound or operationally efficient public service, and thus failed to reach the prosperous heights once imagined.

Quantitative assessment of the New York streetcar lifecycle
A quantitative analysis was undertaken to explore the lifecycle of the electric streetcar system in the state of New York. The length of electrified track (miles) was selected as the unit of analysis and was sourced from the Red Book of American Street Railway Investments. The following logistic function was used to assess the length of track between the years 1894 and 1920:

S(t)= K/(1+e^([-b(t-t_0)]))

where:

 * S(t) is the status measure (miles of track)
 * t is time,
 * t0 is the inflection point in time,
 * K is saturation status level, and
 * b is a coefficient.

Linear regression was initially performed to determine the parameters of K, b and t_0 prior to the generation of the S-curve. Where data from a particular year was not available, the track miles were linearly interpolated. The results are shown in Figure 1 (refer to the excel file as Wikibooks will not permit my figure upload) and the estimated parameters are shown below in Table 1. The R-squared value (0.938) indicates that the model was a satisfactory fit. Analysis of the S-curve for the state of New York indicates the following streetcar lifecycle characteristics:

 * Birthing phase: <1897
 * Growth phase: 1894 -1910 (inflection occurring at 1905)
 * Maturity: >1910.


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User talk:Martinus KE

Welcome!
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license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Martinus KE


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User talk:Nicknoob243

Welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, Nicknoob243!

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title: User talk:Nicknoob243


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Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/November 24

 Today in 1992 Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X was announced, the world’s first live CD Linux distribution. It drastically reduced the effort required to achieve a running Linux system/X server: Advertised as a “plug-and-play Linux”, it automatically detected hardware and configured itself accordingly. It pioneered IDE CD-ROM drive support when the CD-ROM driver situation was still very poor on Linux. The boot process had to be initiated with a floppy disk, since no standard for booting from CD was devised yet. It was ahead of its time, with available technology not yet fast enough for comfortable use.


text:
User:Saltrabook/Module 2: Diagnosis, causality, prevention, and prognosis of occupational diseases

-> Education module links


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User:Maximilian.Petras

Hi! I am a legal scholar based in northern Germany. My research interests are (critical) legal theory, human rights and data protection. Currently I am writing my PhD about the human right to data protection from a post-individual perspective.

In the past months (2020/21) I have been an Open Science Fellow of the Wikimedia Foundation Germany. My project is called "OpenRewi" (Rewi="Rechtswissenschaft"=legal science). Our goal is to write Open Educational Ressources on various legal topics. Currently we have projects on human rights, criminal law, intellectual property law, law on migration and asylum as well as empirical legal studies. Our projects consist of teams with "editors" and "authors". Although we use traditional terminology, we try to work in a different way. The teams are supposed to work in an agile way without hierarchies. Editors moderate the process of planning and writing. Contents and concepts of our book are planned by the whole project team. We write our texts currently at the German Wikibooks version in booksprints. Each booksprint consists of several weeks of writing as well as an open peer review process. We try to use the material in our university seminars as much as possible in order to get the feedback from students. After our prototype books reached a satisfactory quality we will publish them as an Open Access Version (CC-BY-SA) with one of the traditional publishers. As we are starting a team in public international law that will work in English, we are happy to get in contact with the English Wikibooks community. :)

title: User:Maximilian.Petras


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User talk:Maximilian.Petras

Welcome
Welcome to Wikibooks, Maximilian.Petras!

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Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 21:06, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

Thank you @Leaderboard. Just tried to introduce myself and the project on the general help page, but apparently the four outgoing links to our German Wikibooks pages were too suspicious :) Could you somehow activate the post? Cheers, --Maximilian.Petras (discuss • contribs) 21:32, 24 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Try again, it will work. For reference, this is the text you tried to add but couldn't Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 08:01, 25 March 2021 (UTC):

Introducing German Wikimedia Open Science Project - OpenRewi
Hi folks,

My German Wikibooks friend @HirnSpuk has already talked about work related to our project. Therefore I like to introduce myself and the project properly. Also because we like to start writing books at the English Wikibooks community.

I am a legal scholar based in northern Germany. My research interests are (critical) legal theory, human rights and data protection. Currently I am writing my PhD about the human right to data protection from a post-individual perspective.

In the past months (2020/21) I have been an Open Science Fellow of the Wikimedia Foundation Germany. My project is called "OpenRewi" (Rewi="Rechtswissenschaft"=legal science). Our goal is to write Open Educational Ressources on various legal topics. Currently we have projects on human rights, criminal law, intellectual property law, law on migration and asylum as well as empirical legal studies. Our projects consist of teams with "editors" and "authors". Although we use traditional terminology, we try to work in a different way. The teams are supposed to work in an agile way without hierarchies. Editors moderate the process of planning and writing. Contents and concepts of our book are planned by the whole project team.

We write our texts currently at the German Wikibooks version in booksprints. Each booksprint consists of several weeks of writing as well as an open peer review process. We try to use the material in our university seminars as much as possible in order to get the feedback from students. After our prototype books reached a satisfactory quality we will publish them as an Open Access Version (CC-BY-SA) with one of the traditional publishers. As we are starting an international team in public international law that will work in English, we are eager to get in contact with the English Wikibooks community. :)

We would like to ask for your opinion on the project structure we imagined to be reiterated in the english Wikibooks community. Currently in the German Wikibooks we got our own user page as a project where we collect how-to-guides and best-practices regarding our quality standards for our books. Of course each author/editor has her own user page, which they use to write actual content within the books. Our books as well as templates (in German "Vorlage") are all preceded by OpenRewi. Do you think this organizational structure would also work in the English version?

If you agree on that, we would start translating our German project page for the English version and try to rebuilt the templates in the English Wikibooks version. You can of course always reach me for questions. We are all pretty excited about this!

Cheers Max --~

Vorstellung im Reading Room.
(for the english-reading: I'm talking about some hints I gave in the reading room.)

Hi, bin grad mobil unterwegs: denkt dran nach Euren Links, Überschriften und dem visual editor zu fragen. Habs vergeigt, weil ich gleichzeitig Deine Links korrigieren wollte, deshalb hab ichs erstmal wieder zurück gesetzt. Mobil was machen ist ja die Hölle. Zumindest auf einem 6 Jahre alten Gurkenphone mit Gurkenbrowser :-). Gruß --HirnSpuk (discuss • contribs) 10:36, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

Habs geändert. Sind die Pings angekommen? Gruß --HirnSpuk (discuss • contribs) 12:07, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

 * Yep, everything arrived. Thanks! --Maximilian.Petras (discuss • contribs) 07:38, 27 March 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Maximilian.Petras


text:
Transportation Deployment Casebook/2021/Utah

= Qualitative Analysis =

Streetcar in Utah
Streetcar, also known as tram or trolley, is a type of public transportation utilizing electric vehicles that run on tracks. They usually operate in a single unit and powered by an electric motor [1][2]. The operating speeds of streetcars are generally slow, and most streetcar alignments are short [3].

The S Line, also known as S-Line or Sugar House Streetcar, is a streetcar line in Utah, USA. It connects Sugar House of Salt Lake City with South Salt Lake with a line length of 3.22 km and tracks length of 4.41 km [4]. Operating by Utah Transit Authority (UTA), the S Line has seven stops, connecting Central Pointe to the west and Fairmont to the east. The operating speed of the S Line is 40 km/h, operate with a single car on a single track for most segments of the alignments [4]. The S Line runs in a historic rail corridor with pedestrian and bicycle greenway [5].

Streetcars are typically designed to allow short-trip circulation in urban areas. The alignment of a streetcar line can be a dedicated right-of-way or share lanes with mixed traffic and other transportation modes [1]. In the US, streetcars are part of the renaissance to bring new life to urban centers. They play an important role in accommodating the need for new urban transportation to create public space and shape livable communities. Streetcars provide services in the form of circulated short-trip at urban areas connecting key activity centers [1]. Streetcar system requires less capital and operation costs than conventional rail systems to provide mobility benefits for visitors and residents. They serve as a catalyst to integrate transportation modes with land use policy, as the streetcar line creates opportunities for public and private investments along the transportation corridor [1].

Prior to the Advent of Streetcar in Utah
John Stephenson, who was a young New York wagon builder, invented the animal-drawn streetcar in 1832. By 1880, more than 500 animal-powered transit systems appeared in 300 cities in the US. More than 100,000 horses were pulling the streetcars along the tracks [6].

The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and extended through the territory of Utah [7]. As the industrial revolution spread, new technology entered Utah. An animal-drawn streetcar system was built in Salt Lake City. In 1872, the animal-powered system was in operation by the Salt Lake City Railroad Company. The major limitation of the animal-rail system was the pollution to the environment. In Salt Lake City, the horses and mules can deposit 60 tons of manure and 3,000 gallons of urine annually on the track. In addition, in order to avoid removal costs, people often left dead animals on the street [6].

Passengers often got cold from sitting on the animal-drawn streetcar since the cars only travel 4 to 6 miles per hour. In Salt Lake City, stoves were implemented to heat the streetcars. Coal stations were created along the streetcar line to allow motormen to receive a pan of coal for the stove [6].

In 1873, major cities in the US began seeking alternatives to the animal-transit systems. Andrew Smith Hallidie invented a horseless streetcar system. It could be powered by underground cables. The cable-powered streetcar systems were successful in other cities such as Chicago with only half of the operation cost as the animal-rail system, but Salt Lake City never experimented with such a system [6]. In 1887, Frank J. Sprague invented the electric streetcar system in Richmond, and the electric streetcar began service in 1888. The innovative design of the electric streetcar system led to the end of the animal-drawn streetcar era [6].

However, while other cities in the US began to convert to electric-powered streetcars, Salt Lake City still maintained its animal-drawn streetcars. By 1889, the Salt Lake City Railroad Company expanded the track length to 14 miles with 21 streetcars [7].

The Invention of Streetcar in Utah
Utah played an important role in the history of electrical power. Salt Lake Power Light, and Heating Company was formed and made Salt Lake City the world’s fifth city to have an electrified central station [8].

Due to the pressure from the supporters of the electric streetcars, the Salt Lake City Railroad Company began to replace the animal-drawn streetcars with electric streetcars [7]. Walter P. Read from the Salt Lake City Railroad Company brought in the idea to turn streetcars into electrified wonders. Animal-pulled trolleys were replaced by electricity [8]. In 1889, the company revealed its electric railway after the completion of a steam powerhouse and trolley lines. After the trial run, Salt Lake City’s first electric streetcar began its operation. It was a success that 500 people gathered to try the first electric streetcar in Utah [8]. By 1891, the electric streetcar was servicing the major streets of the city [7]. The streetcar fleets grew to 63, and rail tracks were extended to 42 miles throughout Salt Lake City [8].

The electric streetcar system mitigated the issue of pollution created by the animal-drawn system. However, there were issues in the initial technology of an electric streetcar. The streetcars were open and without heating systems [7]. During cold winter in Salt Lake City, passengers were reluctant to take the ice-cold streetcars. To avoid frostbite, straw was implemented deeply over the streetcar floors [6].

Early Market Development
When the electric streetcar was first introduced in Utah, there were competitions between the three electric streetcar companies. Each company had its own power lines, resulting in the wasting of excess resources of electricity, telephone, and trolley lines [8]. In 1901, the Utah Power Company purchased the companies and merged them into one company named Consolidated Railway and Power Company [6]. Edward H. Harriman was the most influential figure in improving the streetcar system and modernizing maintenance shops and power lines [8]. He commissioned a state-of-art facility to accommodate the streetcars. A fleet building that could house 144 streetcars. In order to keep Trolley Square self-sufficient and independent, blacksmiths and carpenters were hired on site building. By the time, the streetcar line covers a total of 146 miles and became the premier transportation system in Utah [8].

Role of Policies in the Birthing Phase
In 1914, the company sold its streetcar line to a company named Utah Light and Traction Company. In Salt Lake City, around half of the population utilized streetcars on a daily basis. Passengers paid 5 cents for trips around towns such as North Salt Lake, and 35 cents for round trips to Saltair. A record of 38.9 million fares was collected in 1914 [6].

By 1923, nine million dollars was invested in Salt Lake City’s streetcar system to serve the markets with 144 miles of tracks and 217 streetcars. The monthly ridership of the streetcar system was three million [6].

In order to serve the existing markets better and save money, the company prohibited transfer privileges. The company designed a ticket with seven faces on it, five men’s faces and two women’s faces. When a patron requested transfers, the conductor would punch out the face that was most closely related to the patron’s appearance [6].

Growth of Streetcar in Utah
The Utah Light and Traction Company maintained the streetcar line [7]. In the 1930s, the company began replacing the trolley lines with bus routes. In 1946, the last trolleys were replaced by buses. By 1949, General Motors replaced more than 100 electric streetcars with buses. Cities across the US started to pave over the old tracks [6]. The company had ceased operation in the streetcar line in the 1950s, and the buildings were redesigned and functioned as bus storage. In 1969, the property was demolished [8].

In the 1970s, people started to notice that gasoline-powered engines were worse than animal-drawn streetcars. The issues of pollution and congestion on the highways arose [6]. The transportation officials in Utah identified an economical and effective light rail system to solve the problems. The initial planning for a light rail system started in the 1980s. However, policy issues arose that the public was concerned about the cost-effectiveness of rail, impact on the neighborhood, and sharing the road with other transportation modes such as automobiles. The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) addressed their concerns by conducting simulation models. After the analysis, normal traffic flow and minimal impact on the existing road were found [9].

They invested 312 million dollars in implementing TRAX light rail system [6]. TRAX light rail system began its service in 1999. The success of the investment in the system by the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) had led to an increase in transit ridership. The idea of transit-oriented developments (TOD) attracted more opportunities in the areas [9]. Planners also designed the rail system to allow private investors to take advantage of accessibility. Private developers desired to locate near transit stations, where the areas were population-dense.

Mature Phase of Streetcar in Utah
The transportation officials invested another 118 million dollars for a 2.5-mile TRAX line for Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics [6]. The line was opened in 2001. The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) extended the TRAX line in 2003, 2011, and 2013. The agency opened the S Line in 2013, which was the first modern streetcar line in Utah [9]. In order to adapt to the market of private land development, UTA was required to deliver 70 miles of the rail extension. Influence by policy values, UTA encountered political barriers of a non-negotiable project delivery deadline by 2015 [9]. By planning ahead and obtaining right-of-way, rail cars, and materials early, UTA avoided project delays and took advantage of lower prices.

UTA learned from their experience from the 1980s when the fixed policies, safety concerns, and impact on traffic were preventing the implementation of a light rail system [9]. UTA was being persistent and used simulation models and other analysis to prove that the light rail was the best alternative to accommodate population growth in Salt Lake City. Despite there were obstacles of high expense and political constraints, UTA demonstrated that a sustainable and efficient light rail system could address the issue of rising population. To better serve the needs of the existing and future conditions, UTA would secure federal funding, create strategic partnerships, and employ project delivery methods [9].

= Quantitative Analysis =

S-Curve
Data of year and miles of track was obtained from 1894 to 1920 and analyzed for the first era of the electric streetcar system in Salt Lake City, Utah [10]. Table 1 shows the year and miles of track for the electric streetcar system. Miles of the track was plotted on the y-axis, and time or year on the x-axis. An S-curve was obtained and shown in Figure 1.

Table 1 Miles of Track

Figure 1 Actual Miles of Tracks

It was found that the birth phase of the first electric streetcar era was from 1889 to 1901 when the number of miles of track were stable and were less than 50 miles of track. Since the obtained data only began from 1894. According to the discussion in section 1.3, Salt Lake City’s first electric streetcar system began its operation in 1889, and rail tracks were extended to 42 miles by 1891. The obtained data from 1894 had a track length of 42 miles, which supported the findings.

At the mark of 1902, a sudden increase in miles of track was found from the data. Based on the discussion in section 1.4, it was when Utah Power Company purchased all three electric streetcar companies in Utah and merged them into one company named Consolidated Railway and Power Company. Therefore, the sudden increase in miles of track was due to the merging of companies. From 1902 to 1916, a constant increase or linear growth in miles of track was identified from the obtained data. According to the discussion in section 1.4, it was when Edward H. Harriman and his Consolidated Railway and Power Company began improving the streetcar system and modernizing the maintenance shops and power lines. Thus, the growth phase of the first electric streetcar era was determined from 1902 to 1916.

From 1917 to 1920, the plot of miles of the track showed a stable or a flat line, indicating that the streetcar system was entering a mature phase. The number of miles of track was around 145 and remained around 145. Based on the discussion in section 1.5, it was when approximately half of the population in Salt Lake City were utilizing the streetcar system on a regular basis. Therefore, started from 1917, the first electric streetcar era entered a mature phase in its development.

Linear Regression
A linear regression model was created and the predicted values of miles of track were estimated. The R square value for the model was 0.87, implying that 87% of the variation in miles of track could be explained by variation in time. A t-statistics number of 12, revealing that the predicted miles of track were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. Both the actual miles of track and predicted miles of track were plotted on the same graph against time, as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Actual and Predicted Miles of Track

The two intercept points indicated the two infection years – 1902 and 1917. The two infection years supported the discussion in section 2.1, as 1902 and 1917 were the critical transition points in the three phases of the life cycle.

= Reference List =


text:
Transportation Deployment Casebook/2021/Kentucky Streetcar

Streetcar refers to vehicles that drive on the streets. In most cases, the purpose of a Streetcar's operation is to ensure the short-distance circulation of people in the city and optimized vehicles and infrastructure. In general, the streetcar routes run on shared lanes, while some streetcar runs on isolated streets. Since the American Civil War, streetcars' appearance has provided many urban residents with a fast and efficient way of transporting from one place to another .People living in North America call streetcar "trolley" instead of "tram" (the European name), and this first came from the street railway opened by Sprague in Richmond, and it quickly expanded throughout North America.

Technological Characteristics and Main Market
The power supply system of streetcars usually requires overhead contact nets and electric motors. It is necessary to lay fixed tracks on the ground to for streetcars to move. This kind of transportation system is usually classified as the light rail transportation system. In the period after 1888, many cities mainly used electricity to drive streetcars. Electricity was mainly obtained by installing a wire above the street connecting a long pole that could touch a streetcar's roof. The wire would be connected to the electrical grid with the power generator driven by the steam engine. This in turn would provide electricity for the streetcar.

The rise of the streetcar was closely related to the process of urbanization. People living in cities gradually found that their places of residence are far away from their workplaces. This also made these places inaccessible on foot. Therefore, the emergence of streetcar increased the travel accessibility at that time. Some real estate developers constructed suburbs near the streetcar lines. The streetcar system's rapid growth enabled more and more people to live outside the city and commute to and from get off work every day.

Compression and evolution of other Modes
Until the 1830s, the only mode of transportation for most people was by walking. Around that period, transportation by horse-drawn carriages was no longer the privilege of the rich, and the more and more middle class began to use omnibuses. The number of people commuting to and from getting off work using this transportation system increased, leading to cities' expansion. From the 1820s to 1880, the horse-drawn omnibus in North America's urban traffic began to operate on various cities' streets. The speed was only a few miles per hour.

The horsecar was a significant improvement to the omnibus. Although horses towed the original streetcar, the new design allowed the horsecar to roll along a fixed rail located in the street's center. The advantage of this design was that it ran on the rail. The steel wheels had less energy loss than the wooden wheel driving on ordinary roads. This allowed a horse to pull a larger streetcar and carry more passengers. At that time, horsecar's passenger capacity was about three times that of the omnibus. The experience of passengers using horsecar was often more comfortable than that of the omnibus. Besides, the lower operating cost of horsecar also brought cheaper transportation expenses for passengers (usually using horsecar was 5 cents, while using omnibus was 12 cents). However, there were still a lot of problems with horsecar. The main reason was that any animal could only work in a given period. At the same time, horses needed to eat a lot of feed, and the average working life was less than 5 years.

Since 1873, to find a streetcar system that can effectively replace the horsecar, the first cable car was successfully tested in San Francisco. Since then, the cable car became a means of transportation. A moving steel cable pulled the cable car and followed a fixed track. The cable car was cheaper and more stable than the horse car, but it was also a defect because the cable always had the risk of breaking, and the repair and replacement was also a complicated and expensive process. The innovation of streetcar power didn't stop. After many tests and experiments, Frank Julian Sprague successfully used electricity as a power source in the 1880s and completely changed the entire streetcar market. This was the first time that electricity was successfully used on a large scale to run the whole city's streetcar system. This mainly relied on providing power at a "power" site far away from the actual vehicle. However, some new cable car lines were still being planned. But by 1890, electric railways that were cheaper to build and more straightforward to operate began to become the norm. It was estimated that the cost of constructing a cable car line was twice that of a trolley, and the cost of operating a cable car line was six times that of a streetcar.

Invention of Streetcar
From the 1840s, there was the idea of moving vehicles by electric current. Still, there was no practical way to generate enough electricity, and experiments to use battery power have also failed in terms of feasibility. In the end, Frank Julian Sprague (1857-1934) successfully applied the power system to the streetcar. It is worth mentioning that he had excellent achievements in both vertical and horizontal transportation. As early as October 4, 1881, Sprague got his first patent," electric motor, "and applied to show it at the famous Paris Electric Exhibition, but it was rejected. While working at Edison, Sprague assisted Edison in installing and operating three-wire electric light systems. Because he was dissatisfied with Edison's focus on electric lighting development, Sprague was interested in electricity. About a year later, Sprague resigned from the Edison company the following year and founded Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in 1884.

He then showed his engine for the first time at the International Electric exhibition in Philadelphia. This kind of generator could constantly work for a long time and ran under different loads. By 1886, two inventions of Sprague's company laid the foundation for the large-scale electric railways in the future. They were a fixed constant speed non-sparking motor and a regenerative brake to regenerate electricity or return it to electric drive equipment's main supply system. This design was different from the traditional braking system. In the traditional braking system, the excess kinetic energy was converted into excess heat or waste due to the brake's friction. However, during the braking process, the connection mode of the traction motor would change.

Early Market Development
In 1880, less than 30% of Americans lived in urban environments. Still, when the First World War broke out, this number jumped to at least 50% as industrial jobs attracted immigrant labor and the country's rural population into cities. In 1890, streetcar lines began to promote suburban development in cities of all sizes. In some older cities, electric railways were rapidly replacing horse-drawn carriages, making it possible to extend transportation lines outward and greatly expanded land availability for residential development. Development took place first in remote villages connected by streetcars and, second, in new residential corridors along the streetcar lines.

For the middle class of Lexington
Lexington was a walking city in 1800. Most of the urban population lived within a mile or two of the city centers, making it difficult for people living in the surrounding countryside to reach the city. Lexington's first effort at mass transit in the town was completed in 1874 when two omnibuses slowly made their way between Woodland Park and Main Street's cemetery. With the emergence of the street railway, the city's expansion accelerated, especially for the middle class to migrate to the periphery. Because ordinary railways were not in the city's core area, streetcars' construction provided citizens with a convenient way to travel to and from their workplaces.

For Louisville Southern Exposition
In 1854, Alfred Victor DuPont and Biderman moved to Louisville in search of wealth in the expanding American West. They invested in various businesses, but they bought a mule-drawn tram line in 1866, thus forming a regional trolley system. On August 1, 1883, the Southern Exposition was organized by President Chester A. Arthur, which ended in 1887 four years later. An electric railway took tourists to the Expo site and Central Park. After this, Louisville had one of the best tram systems in the country, and the number of street railroads was at least twice that of other cities of the same size. By 1890, most streetcars were electric and operated by an operator, the Louisville Railway Company. The streetcar ran through the city, connected with the intercity line, and extended to the suburbs such as Jeffersontown, Okolona, Valley Station, and even Shelbyville to go through the city center and nearby neighborhood.

Birth Phase Policy
Because the streetcar system had a significant impact on urban development, the population living was no longer confined to the city center; people could live in quiet places outside the commercial center, the so-called "streetcar suburbs," and the management needs to be improved on the original track. But it was still supported by the municipal government and experts.

Under normal circumstances, streetcar companies might obtain franchise rights from the municipality to operate the system within the street right of way. The city's franchise structure was different but depending on the city's current income percentage or fixed amount, most payments to the town may be a one-time payment or an annual payment. These franchises usually contained requirements that the streetcar company must follow to obtain contracts, including track and street maintenance or fixed fares (such as 5 cents) ．

Growth Phase
After the Civil War, streetcar services throughout the United States developed rapidly. Before the Civil War, the population in many areas of the south did not have the population to maintain the streetcar system's operation and therefore began to industrialize to a greater degree. This industrialization led to population growth in southern urban communities and was closely followed by trams' development.

The Rise of Interurban line
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were nearly 100 tram stations in the Louisville area. At the same time, an elevated station about 60 feet high was built in the city. This streetcar system was called the "sky station." The streetcar ran on these elevated lines. What followed was the rise of interurban lines. This system mainly operated between cities through streetcar and took passengers to rural areas around the city. In some areas, interurban lines competed with the regular passenger service on main railways or had interchanges with steam-powered railroads. This kind of system were less expensive, more frequent, than steam railroads. Simultaneously, Lexington's streetcar system connected Lexington with the bluegrass area of central Kentucky and connected with Louisville, Ohio, Indiana, and the entire Midwest. The desire to establish the interurban line was to promote the convenient transportation of people and goods. There was another reason: The interurban "increases the value of agricultural land, the main reason is that, unlike steam railway, the interurban line can stop at locations in the countryside.

Roles of private sector
At the same time, the widespread use of Streetcar was affected by the development of the real estate. This increases the value of the real estate in the city and suburbs. Therefore, the urbanization process and streetcars of Lexington during that period are closely related, and the street railway construction in Lexington was inspired by real estate development. The most typical example is that the Belt Land Company's development of real estate around the city prompted the Belt Railway Company's establishment in April 1889. The "Belt Railroad" surrounding the city is the central part of the company's plan to develop the city's outer areas by first connecting various railroads into Lexington.

Policy issues: Fixed fare challenge
In Lexington, Streetcar company officials rarely raised fares but rely on increasing passenger numbers for profit. Streetcar's fare was sold to customers for 5 cents each. This price remained until 1917. The main reason is that real estate speculators know that streetcar services can enhance the value of the land. Streetcar companies held real estate rights in urban fringe areas, and even if the routes themselves are not profitable, they were connected by streetcars to stimulate development.

In the first 30 years of streetcar service, the low fare mainly relied on passenger traffic's rapid growth to ensure considerable profits. However, the gradual increase in fares after 1917 highlighted the company's executives' concerns about rising costs, and the equipment itself proved to be a huge expense. The issue of ticket prices also appeared in 1918. Due to wartime inflation, KT&T and the Frankfort City Council had a ticket dispute, and KT&T tried to increase the ticket price to $0.06. Finally, the city council only approved a one-cent increase because KT&T threatened to stop the service.

The mature phase and decline phase
However, with the advent of the twentieth century, the city witnessed the over-saturation of streetcars. By 1917 the country's electric streetcar track peaked at approximately 26,000 miles of trackage across the country. However, With Henry Ford's development of a moving assembly line, more and more Americans could afford to start a car. City streets are becoming more and more crowded because cars and streetcars were competing for the market. This difficulty became more serious during the Great Depression. The excessive extension of the streetcar system, the competition of motor vehicles and the burden of railways in other towns, the financial problems caused by original franchise terms all led to the collapse of the electric railway system. The streetcar company was required to pay taxes and pay additional fees to maintain and pave the streets, making the originally difficult financial problems even more serious. While company officials were considering addressing financial concerns,they were also forced to deal with the growing labour shortage. In July 1913, local K T&T drivers went on strike, and riots followed.

Another problem came from jitneys, which were privately operated vehicles looking for potential customers. In particular, it can freely let passengers get off at a place closer to the destination, and the cost was much less than that of a streetcar. Although it had only existed for some time and was stopped by the court because it had no right to operate, it still impacted the entire market. The technological novelty also played a role. Due to technological innovations, the Louisville Railway Company began to use more flexible buses. This was mainly because the bus system didn't need to maintain costly tracks and freely changed routes and dealt with obstacles, followed by electric trolley coaches and feeder Bus lines were established in the city. At the same time, as the country became more and more obsessed with cars, streetcars were also eliminated.

Reborn
Although many cities have successfully planned light rails and built commercial and residential areas along the routes, sufficient population density is required to drive this type of transit-oriented development. Even Louisville, the largest city in Kentucky, can hardly meet this requirement because most areas have less than 10 people in the census. It is difficult to build a new light railway under low population density, so developing a modern streetcar system with the cheaper investment will be a very effective solution. This will again become a way to stimulate economic development and release economic development signals and promote pedestrian communities. At the same time, it will help the surrounding commercial development because the shop knows that the streetcar line will not change the route like the bus line .At the same time, compared to buses, modern streetcars can solve the congestion problem in urban commercial areas and improve air quality. This is mainly due to the large capacity of streetcars and the lack of diesel .The high cost is still a fatal obstacle to the streetcar development model, but from a politician's perspective, this model should first be seen as a driver for urban commerce and secondly as a link to traffic, which generates considerable taxes through the development of the city. It is one of the driving forces of this model.

Quantitative Analysis
The total length of the entire Kentucky Streetcar line is recorded according to McGraw Electric Railway Manual-the red book of American street railway investment'. In predicting the total mileage of the streetcar, it is necessary to find a suitable model. The S curve is mainly used here to predict the entire system. First, the S curve formula is met by finding a suitable saturation status. This mainly uses the excel table for trial and error to perform linear regression to meet the K value with the expected R -squared to satisfy the establishment of the formula. And the estimated value is shown in the table below. The value of the coefficient of determination is between 0 and 1. Although the larger the value, the higher the degree of the fitting. However, since the streetcar's total mile has a downward trend over a period of time, only the growth period data is used here for the simulation. The K value is slightly larger than the maximum track miles.The formulas required for the model are documented in the following formulas.

$$S(t)=\left ( \frac{K}{[1+e^{(-b(t-t_i)}]} \right )$$

Where:
 * S(t) is the status measure, (e.g. Passenger-km traveled)
 * t is time (usually in years),
 * ti is the inflection time (year in which 1/2 Smax is achieved),
 * Smax is saturation status level
 * b is a coefficient to be estimated

From the data, it can be seen that the streetcars of entire Kentucky increased steadily from 1895 to 1915. This was mainly due to the rise of the interurban line and the acceleration of the entire Kentucky state's urbanisation process. However, as it approached 1915, streetcar reached a saturated market, mainly because of high operating costs and, with, streetcars gradually began to be rolled out across the state market.The value of R square is 0.9, which indicates that the model can fit well.From the S curve, it can be seen that the birthing phase was before 1900, and the growth phase was from 1900 to 1910. This period was also in line with the construction time of the interurban line.With wartime inflation and increasing operating costs, the streetcar market entered the maturity phase after 1910, and eventually the streetcar market reached saturation in 1915 and began to decline.


text:
Transportation Deployment Casebook/2021/Missouri

Introduction
A streetcar (also known as tram or trolley) is a rail vehicle that runs along the track in public  streets, it was used as a local transportation for passengers to commute within a city or town. Over the course of history, the motive power of streetcars has evolved from horse-drawn, steam, cable-hauled, gas and electric. The electric streetcars replaced vehicles relied on animal power in the late 19th and early 20th century. However, the number of streetcars began to decline and were replaced by buses in 1920s since buses are allowed to route freely while streetcars have fixed routes by tracks.

Technological Characteristics
The technological characteristics of a streetcar differs according to their motive power. Animal-drawn streetcars use horses or mules (usually a pair) to pull the carriage. On the other hand, the electric streetcar was powered by electricity from an overhead wire while a trolley pole was used to draw electricity to the overhead wire. All types of streetcar have metal wheels to run along the steel rails laid on the street.

Main Advantages
Most residents went to shop and work very close to where they live in the early 19th century. Accesses to another town or city were extremely limited due to long travel time by foot. Streetcars were invented and introduced to serve as a development tool to expand all cities, allowing residents to travel greater distances. Workers and developers were able to reach distant suburbs that were previously not developed and seek for opportunities to create a new neighbourhood suitable for living. The connection between each town and city was improved since trading and communication is much easier and faster. Electric streetcars also improved residents’ access to public locations within the town, raising efficiency by reducing travel time.

Main Markets
The main market of the streetcar belongs to the workers who live far away from their working place and residents in the town. Many people chose to live outside the city to avoid noise, and potentially owning a bigger but cheaper land to improve quality of life. Therefore, they travel to the city to work in the morning and back home in the evening by streetcars. Residents in the town can use streetcars for urgent circumstances, since it is faster compare to travel by foot. Streetcars also provide access for visiting tourists to most public place in town.

Previous Transport Modes and their Limitations
Horse-drawn omnibus was one of the earliest modes of transport before the electric streetcar. New York City is the first city to open an omnibus service in the United States in 1827. The horse-drawn omnibus allowed a greater number of passengers (around 20 passengers) to ride in a single vehicle, improving efficiency and profit at the same time. The limitations of this mode of transport were the high costs of operating and maintenance fee for the horses or mules, this include the stable, food, grooming and sometimes medication. Other limitations were the amount of energy required by horses or mules to pull the carriage, and the susceptibility of horses and mules to disease. Horses can only work for 4 to 5 hours in a day, streetcar owners usually own up to 10 horses and mules to keep up with the large demand. Horses and mules can produced around 10.5 pounds of manure in a single day and the streetcar is responsible to dispose them. Customers also claimed that the fares were expensive considering it as a public transport. Therefore, majority of passengers in Philadelphia belong to the middle classes and above .This mode of transport was later improved by adding rails on the street and steel wheel on the carriage. It was later named ‘horse-drawn tram’ and was introduced in 1832 in New York. The horse-drawn tram no longer runs on the cobblestones, so the friction between the wheels and the ground was greatly reduced. As a result, there was a significant increase in the efficiency of horses’ power. Furthermore, the passengers were much more comfortable with the ride since the tracks were smoother compare to cobblestones.

Cable car was introduced by Andrew Hallidie in San Francisco in 1873 after omnibus. Drivers were able to operate the cable cars smoothly, but it was only able to operate at a constant speed. Another disadvantage was that the the cable can tie up all the cars if it was jammed or broken. The invention of steam engine in 1870 removed horses and mules from vehicles, a locomotive was driven on the same tracks used by the horse-drawn trams. However, steam trams were very noisy and polluting, so they were not popular in cities even with the ground-breaking technology. In the late 19th century, electric cars began to replace most cable car and horse-drawn car lines.

Evolving Markets
Streetcar has significantly improved the transport system in United States in the early 19th century. However, while transport system evolves constantly, so does its market needs. By 1910s, buses had started to replace streetcars and by 1937, more than 50% of the cities in United States were served solely by bus systems. Eventually, automobiles became popular in 1920s. They were initially only used by the rich and upper class, then it slowly started to be used as a way for travel to work and shopping. Popularity of the automobile was the one of the main reason that leads to the decline in usage of streetcar. Most streetcar companies closed their services while the rest of the streetcars were being modified into a more modern transport system called the 'light rail'.

Evolution of Designs
The first major improvement occurred with the invention of steam engine, which effectively removed animal power from vehicles and made it the first mechanical streetcar. Countries in Europe such as England, Germany, Belgium and France tried to commercialised steam-powered streetcars, however, the steam-powered streetcars were too slow, loud and created too much pollution. The steam engines were then improved and modified to make them more ideal and suitable operating in residential areas. All moving parts of the streetcar including wheels were enclosed to ensure safety and quieter engine. Condensers and superheating were used to minimized visible steam and fuel method had been changed from coal to coke to prevent smoke. By 1870s, steam engines were being used in the United States in many rural regions but began to decline around the 1890s to the 1900s, being replaced by electric streetcars. The second major improvement in technology was the cable-hauled streetcars. The first cable-hauled streetcar was tested in San Francisco, in 1873, it was successful compare to the previous models because a cable grip mechanism to grab and release the moving cable was developed. Compare to the steam engine, the noise and pollution produced were much insignificant and it was able to run on a higher speed. On the other hand, the drawbacks of cable cars were the high infrastructure costs. Cables, stationary engines, pulleys, and underground vault structures below the rails were all very costly to the company. Moreover, the operators needed physical strength and specific skill to operate the cable cars.

The streetcars have been powered by electricity since the late 19th century. Frank Sprague plays a big role in evolution of design of streetcar by inventing technologies such as the inverted type of dynamo in the 1870s, the overhead electric wires in approximately 1880 and regenerative braking in 1886. The inverted type of dynamo became a basic principle of all series-parallel controllers used on direct current railway motors. The overhead electric wires transmit electricity to electric streetcar, making it possible for the streetcar to be powered by electricity. Regenerative braking is type of motor that allows large vehicles to maintain constant speed under different loads. This invention was quickly became popular and was used in most electric vehicles. The design of the electric streetcar was completed by Charles Joseph Van Depoele. He invented a device called the trolley pole in 1885 to extract current from the overhead wires. Frank Sprague

later took Charles Joseph Van Depoele's original idea and design of the trolley pole and modified it.

Early Market Development and Niche Markets in Missouri
When electric streetcars were introduced to the market, some passengers still stick to their usual transport system such as horse-drawn cars. Companies adjusted the size of car and service frequency and time to suit the markets, thus streetcars quickly won over cable car markets. By the 1830s, St. Louis (city) had expanded in size, making it extremely inconvenient for residents to walk throughout the town. Within the larger cities in Missouri, streetcars have significantly improved travel time and experiences for workers who live far from the central core but needed to travel to work every day. Later, electric streetcars were proven to be far cheaper than horses-drawn car, this means the costs of travel could be lower, quickly made the electric streetcar accepted and favored by the community. Streetcars also transformed main streets in town into commercial zones. Existing shops, businesses, restaurants and saloon owners hoped to increase business through convenience for many potential customers, while it also increases the chance residents investing and opening new shops in town. These famous streets in Missouri include the Grand, Jefferson, and Gravois street. In 1880, residents were interested in the industries nearby the survey area, along Gravois Road and only as far south as Arsenal. This result in more job opportunities. Overall, the electric streetcar satisfied people's need to transport within large cities, and also enhanced economic by creating more opportunities for trading and businesses. Missouri had streetcars in 27 of their cities in total. Two of the major systems in Missouri were the St. Louis Kansas City Railway & Light Co. and the United Railways Co. of St. Louis, each responsible for average of 250 and 450 miles per year from 1910 to 1920.

Policies
American Public Transportation Association, formerly known as American Street Railway Association (1882-1905), was established by the public and private sector organizations who were interested in the public transport industry. It has worked with cities on policies associating to the streetcars since then. Every year, large amount of funds were invested into the public transport system. As a result, almost all public transport systems are owned by private companies. Without any exception, the streetcar systems were financed solely by private corporations as well. This mode of transport dominant the market as soon as it was introduced to the community. Most public policies in growth phase were related to the sudden and sharp growth of streetcar in the cities. Policies for transport system changed over time, but one policy that still remained effective was the use of franchise. Putting a limit on the franchise of streetcars can avoid unnecessary competition, which allows the streetcar system to cover more areas and to ensure protection on the income for the streetcar companies.

Locked-in Policies
The government made a policy that stated all passengers who use the streetcar systems will be charged at a flat fare of five cent.

Role of Public Sector in Growth
Streetcars had dominant the market as the chief mode of transport when the government imposed a 5-cent flat rate fare for all services. When this policy was created, 5 cents was enough for streetcars to operate and even made profit.

Role of Private Sector in Growth
Developers and real estate speculators contributed a significantly in growth of the streetcar system. Developers would invest in different streetcar operations and then construct new lines of streetcars into their land. Their aim was to develop the rural areas to attract potential land buyers who were interested in living outside the. By the late 19th century, some American preferred to live in semi-rural place, away from the pollution, noise and activities of the crowded city, but still close enough to maintain a sense of community. Suburbanization became a trend in American history. Electric power companies were also interested with the streetcar business as they saw potential opportunities to provide electricity to the new living area.

Policy issues
The flat rate 5-cent fare was locked for the operators indefinitely, even after the inflation and raise in wages occurred. The costs of streetcars operation was too high, operators were unable to make profit anymore and some were forced to terminate their services due to bankruptcy.

Developments
Streetcar was the chief mode of transport in the United States in the early 1900s, covering up to 45,000 miles by 1917. However, the growth of streetcar began to slow down due to the decrease in interest from the private investors. With the mandated 5-cents flat rate nickel fares, numerous strikes and growing competition from automobiles, streetcar struggles to operate in the market. The arrival of automobiles were one of the many reasons that lead to the decline of the streetcar in United States. Since automobile and streetcar shares the same road, it is unavoidable that the automobiles would be driving on streetcar tracks. Ultimately, streetcars could not function and operate smoothly anymore due to crowded use of tracks and inability to keep up with the schedules. Moreover, even though the automobiles drive on the tracks designed for streetcars, they were not required to keep the road and pavement around the tracks in good condition. Eventually, the streetcar companies were the only one responsible for the costs of maintenance. Since the 1920s, streetcar companies began to declare bankruptcy, even when they were still the dominant mode of transportation in their cities. High costs and the low fares forced them to cut back on service, hence indirectly pushing people to the increasingly affordable automobile. In 1900, Missouri only had 180 registered automobiles, but by 1910 and 1920 the number had increased sharply to 12,010 and 266,748. This also result in the unexpected competition with unlicensed taxi operators, which took over the streets and competed with potentially better mobility and speed.

Limitations to Market Change
By 1920, most of the streetcar companies were struggling financially. The ‘locked-in’ five cent fare made it impossible for any improvement or adaptation for this mode of transport. The streetcar companies failed to negotiate for a better fares during the growth phase, resulting in inability to keep up with inflation and increase of wages.

Opportunities to 're-invent' the Mode
After the streetcar disappeared from the road, Portland, Oregon became the first city that open a new streetcar system in North America in more than 50 years. The modern streetcar is commonly known as 'light rail', with higher speed, capacity and stability. Light rails offers a more comfortable experience and higher passenger capacities compare to buses, and it does not emit gas, steam or smoke, which is ideal for dense residential areas. These advantages have helped light rail favored by residents from around the world. However, constructing a new light rail can take years or planning and construction time. The construction of the railway would affect a city's traffic and economic significantly as well. On the other hand, the idea of rubber-tyred tram has been discussed in the past to overcome these difficulties that light rails exhibits. A rubber-tyred tram uses rubber wheels to run on the street. Since rubber-tyred tram do not require tracks to function, the construction costs and time needed would be much cheaper and shorter. Furthermore, the maintenance costs would be lower as well with the absence of tracks.

Data
The table below shows the total length of tracks (in miles) of the streetcar system from the year 1894 to 1920 in Missouri, United States. The information was extracted from McGraw Electric Railway Manual.

All of the urban areas in Missouri that have streetcars and all of the streetcar systems in each urban area were identified to obtain the total length of track for the State of Missouri for each year. This data can be seen in table 1 below: Table 1: Length of tracks (miles) in the State of Missouri

Model Analysis
The data is used to estimate a three-parameter logistic function to obtain a curve that best fits the data. This lifecycle model of the streetcar system can be characterised using the following three-parameter logistic equation:

S(t) = Smax/[1+exp(-b(t-ti)]

where:

 * S(t) is the status measure (tracks laid)
 * t is time,
 * ti is the inflection time, (i.e. Year that reaches 50% of maximum length of track)
 * Smax is saturation status level (i.e. Maximum length of track)
 * b is a coefficient

After performing a series of regressions, values for ti, Smax and b are shown in table 2 below: Table 2: S Curve parameters

Using the values from table 2, the logistic function equation was applied to produce a curve of best fit (Figure 1). This model compares the predicted length of tracks with the actual length of tracks. The model can be fit for different saturation status levels, but the drawback is only one of these saturation levels will best fit the data.

Model Accuracy
The actual length of tracks recorded were all different from the predicted length of tracks, however, they both follows similar trend of the growth and maturity phases of the lifecycle. Accuracy of the model could be easily affected by the lack of data since the study period does not extend early or late enough in time. Therefore, this graph is unable to show an obvious birthing and decline stage of the streetcar system in Missouri.


text:
User:DM Shankar Patel

Shankar Patel From Jodhpur Rajasthan

title: User:DM Shankar Patel