The Enduring Improvement

When we look back a century at the horse and wagon, we can see that the horses and wagons were much improved by better wagon-making and better feeding for the horses. We can also see that the horses created immense amounts of horse dung and consumed a third of the grain grown in the US at that time.

Fifty years from now people will look back and consider our lifestyle today to be as wasteful and inefficient as the horse and wagon. Cars and trucks will be as rare as horses and wagons are today. The car was not an enduring improvement.

Except the streetcar, which is so largely unchanged from the streetcars of 1900, and will probably be little different (to the eye) fifty years from now. The streetcar was an enduring improvement.

Heritage and historic streetcars are and will be valuable as a memory of simpler times with different textures to the riding experience, not for the daily rider, who treasures the improvements that have happened, but for the day-tripper who wants to improve their day like an ice-cream eater at a do-it-yourself sundae bar. At the Seattle waterfront the streetcar is a wonderful addition to an eclectic array of choices- an enduring addition.