Letter: Street cars are relics of the past

When I saw the picture of the trolley-style bus in the Tri-City Herald, I thought it is really not like a trolley car. Trolley cars run on metal tracks permanently installed in the street. The power comes from an overhead electric wire connected to the vehicle by a retractable trolley (hence the name trolley car).

Because the tracks and wires are permanently located in the middle of the street, a person must go out into the street to get on the vehicle. At some busy places there were concrete “islands” for waiting in the middle of the street.

Crossing one or two lanes of traffic to access the street car was a death-defying feat. Sitting on a bench and having a bus pull up to the curb in front of you is a much safer and more pleasant way to travel around town. Street cars are relics of the past. They enabled city people to live on the outskirts of the city and commute to the business districts to work. As a child I lived at the end of a San Francisco street car line. My father was a street car motorman.

This story was originally published November 29, 2016 at 4:01 AM with the headline "Letter: Street cars are relics of the past."