Street Car By Robert Post Sparknotes

The streetcar and its predecessors laid the foundation for the modern mass transit systems throughout the world. As described by author Robert C. Post in his historical narrative Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology, the streetcar played an essential role in not only the technological developments of mass transit, but in the social aspects of ridership as well. And although the streetcar has all but disappeared in the United States, much like the omnibus and horses before it, the lessons learned from the streetcar remain and influence the modern implementations of mass rail and light rail transit systems.
Post begins the narrative with a chronological list of people moving technologies. This lays the foundation for the book structure,

It is informative, refreshing, and most of all gives a unique view of the technologies in a readable format for a wide range of audiences. By explaining the advancements through a chronological and narrative format, Post simultaneously examines the social interactions and backgrounds along with the technological advancements. This is deemed a positive feature of the work because it not only gives the reader a better understanding of the time period in which the technology was implemented and the opinions surrounding the deployment, but an ability to understand the reasons the technology became successful when many solutions did

Although it was implemented in many parts of the world, Post focuses on the American deployments of the technology. A primary feature of this narrative was the development of the power source for the streetcar. This began with discussions of coal, and continued into the various methods of electrifying the rail system. Post not only portrays the importance of the scientific means in which the technology was developed, but also the safety concerns associated with each method – particularly the risks of electric shock in early third rail and in rail electrified systems. This is an important feature of the narrative, because it exemplifies the social atmosphere which was needed to promote the technological change, and the efforts which were taken to gain political favor to do so. Similarly to the cable car, however, Post focuses on the advancements in the United States and gives very little information on the usage in other countries. Post also glosses over, when perhaps more discussion should have been given, the process by which the technologies used were chosen when multiple solutions were