Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology

Robert C. Post

Bloomsbury Academic, 2007 - Business & Economics - 181 pages

This volume in the Greenwood Technographies series covers urban mass transit - that is, the technologies that allow cities to move large numbers of people around. Just a few hundred years ago, the size of cities was limited by the time it took people to move from one part of the city to another. The development of successive technologies has forever altered the urban landscape. From horse-drawn omnibuses to subways to current light-rail, this volume highlights the technological and social struggles that have accompanied urbanization and the need for an efficient and cost-effective means of transportation in cities.

About the author

ROBERT C. POST received his doctorate in American history from the University of California, Los Angeles. From 1974 to 1996 he was employed by the National Museum of History and Technology/Museum of American History. His books include Street Railways and the Growth of Los Angeles (1989) and Technology, Transport, and Travel in American History (2003). For fifteen years he was editor of Technology and Culture, the quarterly journal of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). He was SHOT's president in 1997-98 and recipient of its Leonardo Da Vinci Medal in 2001.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology; Greenwood Technographies, ISSN 1549-7321
• Author: Robert C. Post
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2007
• ISBN: 0313339163, 9780313339165
• Length: 181 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Industries / Transportation; Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development; Science / General; Technology & Engineering / General; Technology & Engineering / History; Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects; Transportation / Public Transportation