Getting around
Posted on February 11th, 2013 –
With the recent dumping of snow that fell on Toronto I thought it’d be a neat idea to once again revisit the City of Toronto Archives to see how we, with all of our modern technology, fared against Torontonians of the past.
Sadly, the people of the the old Toronto dealt with the snow way better than we did. For starters, they didn’t always depend on rubber tires or internal combustion engines for getting around … check out the four-wheeled, woman-powered infant conveyance here:
Apparently, this method of transport was so safe that no one, including the children in the drivers’ seats, gave a second thought to wandering out onto Lake Ontario in it. I suppose it was definitely safer walking on the lake during the winter than in the summer — lot fewer big ships to watch out for:
The lake also offered natural relief to traffic congestion. Road packed? …
…why, just toss your best gal in the sidecar and hit the waters:
Apparently the compact “gravity-powered man car” was also quite popular, being able to go off road and being so easy to navigate that even young children could drive it. But the inability to go on level surfaces or uphill proved to be this form of transport’s undoing:
But, of course, some inventions of the era were so effective that they endured well into the modern day. Take the common “foot-car”, for example:
We can certainly learn a lost from the past, especially when modern technology fails us. Like they saying goes, don’t toss the baby out with the bathwater … unless, of course, it’s out on the lake, the safest place for newborns to be.
... with pictures
... with sounds
... with videos
... with opinions
... that's shorter
... that's longer
February 12th, 2013 10:12 am
What’s the matter with you godamn lefties anyway? Third picture from the top. Repeat after me: Subways, subways, subways. The people want SUBWAYS!
February 13th, 2013 9:51 am
Subways? Oh, you mean sub-surface electro cars? For sure…who doesn’t want those!