Wang Liqing's carriage stopped and went on the road. It was better when it encountered a straight road without an intersection. Although there were many cars, it could still maintain a certain speed.

But if you encounter an intersection, you will have to wait for a long time.

However, although it is not fast to take turns crossing the intersection under the command of the traffic patrol, it is still much faster than when there was no relevant traffic law more than ten years ago.

Wang Liqing still remembers Songjiang City more than ten years ago. There were not as many horse-drawn carriages as there are now, but the traffic situation was even worse. The main reason was that there was no perfect traffic law at the time, and there were no traffic patrols to direct the intersections. Therefore, pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages were crowded at the intersections.

, no one is allowed to pass, it is simply impossible to pass.

It was precisely because of the traffic conditions in Songjiang City at that time, especially the serious traffic problems at intersections, that finally prompted Songjiang Prefecture to first issue local traffic rules. A year later, the Dachu Empire formally legislated and formulated the first traffic rules in human history.

A traffic law.

Well, it's not the kind of etiquette in ancient times, which relies entirely on people's conscious ceremonial orders, but a very serious formal law, the kind that violates will lead to jail time...

The law compulsorily stipulates that carriages must be registered, especially public carriages and taxis used as public transportation, which must be registered for business. Horsemen who drive must pass a professional examination and obtain a public carriage driving license before they are allowed to drive public carriages to carry passengers.

carriage.

At the same time, all commercial carriage operating companies, whether freight or passenger transport companies, are required to only hire drivers with a carriage driving license to drive carriages. This was later extended to any organization that uses or operates carriages, and its drivers must have a license.

.

As for private matters... I can't control that much for a while. After all, in many rural areas, farmers just hitch up a car and hit the road. You can't control it even if you want to.

But later, when wealthy families hired professional coachmen for their private carriages, they also required the coachman to have a driving license. For example, Wang Liqing's coachman had a public carriage driving license issued by the official transportation agency.

When a carriage travels or a horse travels, the coachman or horseman must be by the carriage's side at all times to control and comfort the carriage at all times to avoid possible fright of the horse. When the coachman or horseman leaves the horse, the horse must be securely tied with reins.

Horses cannot be allowed to move around freely.

At the same time, for commercially operated carriages, operating agencies are required to purchase insurance to compensate third parties and passengers for possible accidents.

These days, carriages can also overturn, and carriages can also hit and kill people...

On the one hand, it regulates the management of horse-drawn carriages, and on the other hand, it formulates complete road driving rules, which clearly stipulates that you drive on the right, and before overtaking, you must ring the bell in advance to advance the horse-drawn carriage in front, and you can only overtake from the left.

When driving at night, the carriage must turn on its lights...not so that you can see the road clearly, but so that the carriages and horses in the distance can see you in time...and avoid hitting you directly.

When passing through an intersection, if there is no traffic patrol command, you must turn and give way to go straight. When both parties are going straight through the intersection, give way to the right.

Together with many other regulations, it constituted the first special traffic law in the Dachu Empire, which regulated the driving of horses (including other animals) and horse-drawn carriages (animal-drawn vehicles), and improved public transportation safety.

Of course, the most intuitive feeling is that the messy and crowded intersection situation in the past has been improved. When horses, carriages, and pedestrians are at the intersection, they must pass according to the traffic rules. In addition, patrol agencies will be set up in busy traffic sections.

Traffic command patrol officers directly conduct on-site command.

So don't look at the fact that Wang Liqing now has to stop and go when riding a carriage, especially when passing through intersections. Sometimes he even has to wait for several rounds of traffic patrol signals before he can pass smoothly.

But this is already very rare, and compared with more than ten years ago, there has been a comprehensive change.

If it were to be the kind of mess that it was more than ten years ago, relying solely on people's conscious courtesy, the massive number of horse-drawn carriages in Songjiang City today could completely block the entire Songjiang City.

It's not easy to completely solve it. After all, Songjiang has too many people and too densely populated. Moreover, due to the limitations of contemporary construction technology, there are no high-rise residential buildings. The residential density of the urban population is relatively low, which in turn results in the city area being too large and difficult for people to travel when traveling.

Relying on horse-drawn carriages.

In this regard, Songjiang Prefecture has gathered the opinions of many transportation experts: further improve public transportation capabilities!

In addition to continuing to increase the operating mileage and quantity of rail carriages, we are also preparing to plan and build urban trains.

Compared with ordinary public carriages, rail carriages have a larger carrying capacity per horse.

For example, an ordinary four-wheeled public carriage pulled by two horses can generally carry about 16 to 20 people. A few busy lines may invest in some large public carriages with a carrying capacity of about 30 people. However, for

The road requirements are very high, and because the horses are too heavy-duty, they need to change horses after a short run.

As for why large carriages with four horses are not used, this is because if four horses are used, it will be more difficult to control more horses... It is actually difficult to apply it on a large scale in cities with more complex traffic environments. There are too many uncontrollable risk factors.

If it doesn't go well, there will be an accident.

Therefore, public carriages and freight cars in the city are actually all two-horse, and there are very few four-horse carriages. There are also some two-wheeled carriages, which are simply single-horse.

For example, many two-wheeled taxis have a single horse. The most typical one is the 'An's Taxi' produced by Huating An's Carriage Manufacturing Company. Even though it is just a two-wheeled carriage, it is actually a serious one.

It is a technical product that is light in weight and has very good performance. After the passengers and the driver get on the vehicle, the stress points of the vehicle are basically on the wheels. The force on the horses is very light and they can run relatively easily.

The driver of this kind of carriage does not drive in the front, but behind the passenger seat... This is not to say that the performance of the carriage is higher, it is purely that if the driver is in the front and the passengers are in the back, the speed of the carriage these days is also

It's not fast, the horses are basically walking, and the passengers jump directly to avoid the toll, and your coachman doesn't even know...

So when you see a coachman driving at the back of a carriage, this is basically a taxi. The coachman is at the back to keep the passengers in his line of sight... to prevent passengers from jumping out of the carriage and evading fares.

Well, although the Chu Empire was the most powerful country and had many people who claimed to be decent, not everyone was a decent person.

Today, taxis in the style of An's taxis account for almost the majority of taxis in Songjiang City and other cities.

Of course, there are also some two-horse four-wheel taxis, but the fare of these is more expensive, and most people cannot afford to ride on them. This kind of two-horse four-wheel taxis usually have multiple passengers traveling together, but more of them are some

It is the vehicle used by wealthy people when traveling.

Ordinary middle-class people would feel heartbroken for a long time even if they do it!

Taxi carriages and public carriages in the city are generally single or two-horse. Private carriages are also similar, and four-horse carriages are relatively rare.

There are public carriages or trucks that run on suburban routes and some long-distance routes, but more of them use four-horse vehicles... This is because there are no asphalt or cement roads on suburban or intercity roads, and they are often gravel roads and cinder roads.

Some are even dirt roads.

If there are fewer horses, it will be too difficult to pull and it will not be able to run very far, so four-horse ones are more common.

Ordinary two-horse four-wheel public carriages can only carry a small number of passengers. If you want to simply increase the number of passengers, there are other problems.

At this time, some people proposed to simply imitate the early horse-drawn rail vehicles and build rail carriages.

Rail carriages are not new to the Chu Empire. The predecessor of trains was actually rail carriages. In the early years, they were very common in docks, ports, mining areas and other places with huge cargo transportation needs.

But it has not been tried much before to carry passengers in cities.

The senior officials in Songjiang City were already troubled by the messy traffic situation, so after hearing about this kind of urban rail carriage, they got ready to do it.

After trying a track carriage route a few years ago, I found it to be quite good.

Because of the existence of the track, the friction of the carriage wheels is smaller, which means that the transportation volume of a single horse can be greater.

Ever since, rail carriages carrying about 40 passengers began to appear on some busy roads in Songjiang.

The transportation volume of rail carriages is at least twice that of ordinary public carriages, and the safety is greatly improved. The accident rate is only a dozen percent of ordinary carriages. The most important thing is that the speed is faster... It can reach about ten kilometers.

Operating speed!

Ordinary public carriages these days actually operate at a speed of only a few kilometers per hour, which is very slow!

Moreover, because the horses carry a lighter burden, the track carriage can operate longer distances... Otherwise, it will be like the previous large public carriages, which requires changing horses for a short distance, which affects the operation efficiency.

Public carriage companies also have to consider costs and operational efficiency.

Of course, the cost of rail carriages is also higher. After all, rails have to be laid on the streets... This has also led to the current price of rail carriages in Songjiang City to be higher than ordinary carriages... For the same distance, a public carriage costs six cents.

If it’s money, then the track carriage will cost ten cents.

The price comparison between the two is about 60%.

But even so, some middle-income people prefer to take rail carriages when traveling because they are faster, safer, and more comfortable.

The difference between ordinary public carriages and rail carriages these days is probably the difference between green trains and high-speed rail in later generations.

But even if many middle-class people want to ride a rail carriage, they can't get on it... Because the investment for this thing is relatively large, the Songjiang Public Carriage Company cannot open it in all places at once, and has to open it step by step.

Moreover, rail carriages require large investment and higher operating costs, so some areas with low pedestrian flow will not open them.

After all, there are public carriages, and they are cheaper, and this public carriage is also owned by the public carriage company... But there is no need to engage in vicious competition with yourself.

Although there are a lot of people in Xicheng District and there are often traffic jams, the overall population density is still not as good as that of several other urban areas.

Nowadays, in Songjiang City, the most traffic jam is Beicheng District, which is the area north of Suzhou River. It is the real city center of Songjiang City, with a large number of buildings. At the same time, there are a large number of large enterprises further north, with a dense population, and

The planning and construction was relatively early, and many roads are not big.

This road is small and there are many cars, which has caused a long-standing traffic problem in Beicheng District.

Relatively speaking, Xicheng District developed later and has a smaller population. Although there are factories, they are far less exaggerated than Beicheng District and not as numerous as Nancheng District. The economy is relatively backward, but the traffic jam is not so serious.

At the same time, the overall air quality is actually slightly better, which has also attracted many wealthy people like Wang Liqing to set up their homes in the suburbs of Xicheng District...

As for the real city center, especially the place in Beicheng District... I won't live there even if I kill them.

And future generations may especially like the view of the Huangpu River...the wealthy people of Chu State don't like to live by the river these days. Otherwise, as soon as you open your eyes, you can see the smoke from the chimneys of countless ships flying towards you.

come over!

Because of the highly developed economy of Songjiang City, the Huangpu River was also the busiest waterway in the Chu Empire. There were ships emitting soot coming and going all the time, and various steam ships were densely packed on some docks on the shore, and steam ships were

After starting, they often need to be pressurized before they can sail. This means that many steam ships smoke on the dock after starting... Some large ships smoke in place for several hours before the water vapor pressure can be raised.

, and finally slowly sailed away.

Not to mention a lot of smoke from ships, there are also a large number of factories along the river. When development was carried out in the early years, in order to facilitate the transportation of goods, early enterprises were basically built along the river, and these were often large factories, using many and large power steam engines.

!

The densely packed factories along the river are billowing with thick smoke all day and night!

So the river surface at other people's houses is foggy, and it looks like a Jiangnan water town.
To be continued...