this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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Fuck Cars

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Wuppertal, Germany in 1902 (www.youtube.com)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/fuckcars
6 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but i really like how calm the street scenes are without cars. There's also a 1902 / now comparison video which is kind of depressing, i thought i'd rather post something nice :)

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[–] Humanius 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's certainly an interesting town and monorail. I was there last month and took some footage of the Schwebebahn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpmhPuT_Dlk

[–] Johny5 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So beautiful :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Right? Makes me strangely sentimental watching this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

That's excellent. Pity we don't make more use of things like that now.

Oops, just looked at the other link!

[–] Humanius 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Monorails are usually not the most practical solution. In most places where you can build a monorail, a regular train is usually simpler and cheaper to build. Wuppertal has some very specific geography which causes a monorail following the path of the river Wupper to make sense, but that often doesn't translate well to other places.

Tom Scott made a video about it at some point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4KZLcvMQWg

And a video on the Schwebebahn by The Tim Traveller:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IFh6wFTJiQ

[–] Iron_Lynx 2 points 3 months ago

The situations where such infrastructure technologies make sense as the best option are pretty rare. Wuppertal had the unique combination of circumstances with:

  • a decently well-connected inventor and a supportive emperor
  • the urban/metropolitan area being in a narrow valley along the river Wupper
  • steep hillsides poorly suited for rail
  • geology poorly suited for tunnelling with late 1800's technology
  • local steel industry
  • the ability to use the river as the right of way
  • the relative infancy of electric railway propulsion

This all contributed to a suspended railway making a lot of sense in that case.

Today, an average problem can be satisfactorily addressed with a form of conventional rail in most situations.