Transportation Revolution

Beyond Métro and automobile, transportation innovations reshaped daily movement. The omnibus system, horse-drawn since the 1820s, experimented with motors. Steam-powered buses belched smoke but moved faster. Electric buses ran quietly but required overhead wires. Compressed-air buses, a French innovation, hissed through streets like mechanical serpents. Each technology's advocates promised the future; most passengers just wanted reliable service.

Bicycles democratized individual transport. The "safety bicycle," with equal-sized wheels and chain drive, replaced the dangerous high-wheelers. Prices dropped as manufacturing scaled. By 1900, Paris had 500,000 cyclists. Working men pedaled to factories. Bourgeois women, wearing revolutionary "bloomers," scandalized and liberated themselves simultaneously. Children raced through parks. The elderly discovered renewed mobility.

The bicycle's social impact exceeded its mechanical simplicity. Cycling clubs mixed social classes, united by shared enthusiasm. Women cyclists challenged dress codes, chaperone requirements, and physical limitations. Rural tourism became possible for urban workers. Young couples could escape family supervision. "The bicycle," declared the feminist newspaper La Fronde, "is freedom on two wheels."

But accidents multiplied. Cyclists collided with pedestrians, horses, each other. The Prefecture of Police established traffic regulations, largely ignored. Newspapers ran daily accident tallies. Insurance companies created new policies. Doctors specialized in cycling injuries. Every freedom had its price.

Aviation remained mostly spectacle, but what spectacle! Santos-Dumont, the Brazilian airship pioneer, made Paris his laboratory. His dirigibles floated over the city, trailing advertising banners or simply the excitement of flight. In 1901, he won the Deutsch Prize by flying from Saint-Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in under thirty minutes. Watching from below, young Louis Blériot dreamed of heavier-than-air flight.