ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century steam coaches were put into operation on the roads as public vehicles, and for a time it seemed that they might rival the railways. The advocates of the tractor bus argue that if the type is both safe and suitable as a goods carrier, it must also be safe as a passenger carrier, since passenger loads are lighter. Since the war municipal motor bus services have developed considerably. The use of motor bus fleets as "feeders" to municipal tramway systems has become almost universal, for it has been demonstrated in practice that the economic characteristics of the motor bus fit it especially well for such purposes. In many towns and smaller cities the motor bus provides the only street services, and where traffic is not very heavy it is an ideal instrument of city transportation, since in such circumstances no other type might be able to pay its way.
