> Milwaukee claims to be the inventor of the weekly transit pass
… so, really? In the 20th century? I’m _almost_ certain that the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (1834) did season tickets; remember seeing one once. Even if not that, surely some one did in the century between the invention of commuter rail and the Milwaukee one?
(The Dublin and Kingstown railway, allegedly the first commuter railway in the world, is interesting in that it was clearly designed before people had figured out what commuter rail was _for_; on launch it was every half hour on weekdays… and every 15 mins on Sunday. These days it’s every ten mins on weekdays and every 20 mins on Sunday… But in the very early days there was definitely an impression that using commuter rail was a leisure activity.
It was also extended with the world’s first atmospheric railway, which lasted about ten years before being replaced with something more sensible. Today, Dublin has about four commuter lines, which just goes to show that first mover advantage doesn’t count for much.)
> But in the very early days there was definitely an impression that using commuter rail was a leisure activity.
Hasn't really changed in Germany. If you're halfway affluent, you buy a car to commute between cities such as Cologne and Bonn, both in a hyper-dense metropolitan area.
It was the most strenuous part of college for me, which I then abandoned after finishing everything except of my thesis (I didn't even start or plan one). Same today.
All people I know in the "Rhein Ruhr" metropolitan area, when being honest, use cars at soon as it matters.
The sole idea of traveling to something really important by public transport is generally considered ludicrous, but PR says other things.
No wonder, since Deutsche Bahn is primarily led by former automobile company lobbyists and deeply entangled with the German car industry and its corruption arms in politics.
Looking at other countries, there's often only surface difference.
Wasting fossil fuels contrary to any common sense, in areas thar are extremely densely populated, is an oppurtunity for profit and political corruption.
That's why commuting between two large citites in a huge metropolitan area is rejected by most people who can afford to be in a car.
Ironically, trans exposed to sun are often not even climatized here. As opposed to racing cars taking double the space, driving next to the trains, when they're not currently blocking buses and trams.
Most cars with one driver inside. Loud and asthma-inducing motorcycles are also very popular and publicly funded.
Humanity has about 20x more cars than needed, because of corruption. Take the chance and use them, mostly stop building new ones except for neccessities and innovation.
Make public transit work.
Would be efficient, but maybe not as efficient in accelerating the world's destruction as subsidizing new oversized cars.
> I’m _almost_ certain that the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (1834) did season tickets
Season and weekly are different things (obviously). If you narrow your claim down enough, of course you can be the first (patents or Guinness book of world records being prome examples.)
But the article isn't about that, it's about the design of the tickets. And they are a thing of beauty.