Twin City Rapid Transit

Yesterday I returned to SF from a short stay at "home" in St. Paul, Minnesota. Being with my family and friends certainly makes me feel the love for where I was born and raised, but I can't help compare the two places. I love it here, and while it's not the place where my "people" happen to be, it is the place where I don't spend 25% or more of my time in a car getting around from place to place, person to person. 

In celebration of the Twin Cities, I'm sharing this map from 1913 showing the "Rapid Transit" streetcars of Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

Timeline
1872: The first streetcars were pulled by horses, starting off in St. Paul
1875: The city of Minneapolis joins in
1887: Upgrades to the system allowed the cars to be pulled by cable loops
1892: Cars hit the electric grid
1920: Peak ridership occurred, carrying an estimated 238 million people
1929 - 1930's: The Great Depression saw ridership leveling off
1939 - 1945: There was a climb in passengers as World War II brought gas rationing
1954: The Twin Cities had its last streetcar journey in Minneapolis

The system stretched from Stillwater to Lake Minnetonka, with a total of 523 miles of streetcar!

The pink pin is Excelsior, on Lake Minnetonka. Stillwater in the northeast corner, located on the St. Croix River which separates Minnesota and Wisconsin here.

Is it ironic that streetcars in cities today are tourist attractions; we get entertainment out of these transportation units that are a thing of the past, yet technically speaking, very efficient? And had all the routes lasted longer, without the interfering competition from automobiles, they could have been a huge factor in the continued creation of what I imagine to be extraordinary urban and inter-urban transportation, spaces, and places. 

For example, San Francisco is famous for having streetcars that tourists will wait hours to ride. San Franciscans don't ride them unless you hop on to hop off, or, you find yourself in these situations: 

"These situations," being visits from family, are the best, by the way!

Even in Minnesota, we have a museum dedicated to our historic streetcar. Though they are a thing of the past in terms of getting people from point A to point B on a daily basis, I believe they will make a comeback by influencing future transportation services of the future!

Today in SF you find a convergence of the historical streetcar and a modern US city's bus system: buses that are (typically) connected to above electricity. The buses run absolutely everywhere, and are pretty reliable. Technology has helped with that :)

I didn't want to find something off the web, so I looked out my window and took one for myself! Notice the electric wires across the image; buses connect to these. Although an extensive bus system requires lots of energy, transportation connected to electricity reduces pollution, which is a concern in terms of air quality in denser cities.

Sources & Links:
MN Historical Society YouTube video 
Top 10 Trolly Rides
Minnesota History Center 
Minnesota Streetcar Museum