Early trolley car in Newton, Massachusetts

Early trolley car in Newton, Massachusetts.

Conveyances for public hire are as old as the first ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport: on land people walked (sometimes in groups and on pilgrimages, as noted in sources such as the Bible and Canterbury Tales) or (at least in the Old World) rode an animal. Ferries are part of Greek mythology — corpses in ancient Greece were buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay the ferryman Charon to take them to Hades.

Some historical forms of public transport are the stagecoach, traveling a fixed route from coaching inn to coaching inn, and the horse-drawn boat carrying paying passengers, which was a feature of European canals from their 17th-century origins. (The canal itself is a form of infrastructure dating back to antiquity — it was used at least for freight transportation in ancient Egypt to bypass the Aswan cataract — and the Chinese also built canals for transportation as far back as the Warring States period. Whether or not those canals were used for for-hire public transport is unknown; the Grand Canal was primarily used for shipping grain.)

The omnibus, the first organized public transit system within a city, appears to have originated in Paris, France, in 1662, although the service in question failed a few months after its founder died; omnibuses are next known to have appeared in Nantes, France, in 1826. The omnibus was introduced to London in July 1829.

Pros and cons of different modes of transport

When deciding which method of transport to use, you need to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Depending on the distance, destination, volume and type of goods you deliver, if you want to transport goods directly from door-to-door, you can choose between different types of road transport, such as bikes, cars, vans or trucks or use alternatives such as rail, air, sea or electronic delivery.

Many people who are looking for a way to save money can look no further than where they sit every day. People who live in rural or suburban areas often have the option of public transportation

at least for the daily commute to work. There are many advantages to using public transportation.

First is cost. If you compare the cost of gas, parking and auto maintenance to the cost of a bus or train pass, you’ll find that a monthly commuting pass is far more economical. If you live in an urban area and use the bus or train as your primary transportation source, you save even more on car payments, insurance and repairs. Also, many public bus systems have “ozone days” where patrons can ride for free.

Convenience is the next advantage: Most trains and buses run on a set schedule that you can set your commuting time around. No more roaming around looking for parking or sitting in traffic. Some say that buses and trains take longer than driving, but if you consider that driving is “lost time” that you can better spend reading or relaxing while leaving the driving to someone else, you come out way ahead time wise.

Environment: Consider how many large suburban vehicles and trucks you see inhabited by one or two people. Everyone who is taking his or her own vehicle is causing some individual pollution, and the earth does not need any extra of that. And many public transportations systems like trains or cable cars do not cause the same energy waste.

One objection to riding public transport may be that a person has children to transport. Many find it easier to look after a bunch of kids while seated on a train or bus than constantly trying to keep an eye on what’s going on in the back seat while trying to drive.

The final barrier to riding public transport could be the “status” factor. It requires a shift of attitude away from high school where “only geeks rode the bus”.

Pros:

-No gasoline needed.

-Cheaper prices of transportation fees

-Cheaper gasoline prices

-No air pollution (No buses/trains/planes emitting smoke or other toxic gas)

-Reduce the dependency of foreign oil

-Produce cleaner air surroundings (around the electric-powered planes/buses/trains movements)

Cons:

-Limited movement (only downtown parts of the city)

-Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)/lightning/Nuclear Explosion can be a threat to electric-powered transportation.

-Increased usage of electricity

-More Nuclear/Coal-powered plants (to keep up with electricity demand)

-A lot of Oil companies and Oil-lover people will be mad and may be offended.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/transport.html

http://www.prosandcons.com/Cars,_Transport/Public_Transport.html

http://www.energysavingsecrets.co.uk/PublicTransportVsPrivateTransportTheDebate.html

http://www.theartofgoodgovernment.org/transp.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport#Environmental