“Everybody’ private carriage.” Omnibus Travel in Victorian Literature

Anne Hidalgo’s twenty-first-century mayoral plans for turning Paris into the “fifteen-minute city” remind us of the spatiotemporal effects that public transportation can have on our urban experience—and of the contingency of today’s vehicular forms, from bicycles and cars to buses and trains. We are well aware of the key date of 1900 for the development of the Paris métropolitain system and because the Métro continues to provide rapid transit, it tends to overshadow previous models for communal urban transportation in the public imaginary. It is tempting to take the teleological view of transportation as a progressive development from oxcarts and galleys to airplanes and supersonic jets. Within that history, the horse-drawn omnibus that ferried small groups of passengers across the streets of Paris from 1828 to 1913 would seem merely a transitional mode, a hiccup before the propulsive advent of engines. Indeed, if we look backward to the nineteenth century through the critical prism of what David Harvey calls the “time-space compression” of postmodernity—or through the historical lens of what Mathieu Flonneau identifies as the democratization of the city under the “automobile revolution” of the Trente glorieuses, the omnibus might appear as a pale preface to modern, efficient modes of transport—akin, perhaps, to the kinetoscope as a quaint proto-version of cinematic technology.Such thinking would sell the omnibus short—something I would have been likely to do before reading Masha Belenky’s lively and well-researched book Engine of Modernity. In Belenky’s account, the omnibus emerges not just as an eclipsed precursor to the eventual acceleration of modernity but as itself already embodying that acceleration. In fact—and this is a nuanced, intriguing point that Belenky’s book develops convincingly—it is precisely because the omnibus was becoming swiftly obsolete that it registered in the popular cultural imaginary as the perfect symbol of the (Baudelairean) éphémère, of everyday life’s “provisional, transitory and fragmented nature,” and of sped-up anxieties about gender and class mixing in the capital city even before the changes wrought by Haussmannization (3). The etymological meaning of omnibus, “for everybody,” set up a horizon of democratization evoking responses of both hope and despair, with low-cost lines transgressing topographical boundaries and creating interior spaces where different classes, genders, and races rubbed elbows in new ways. Belenky harnesses a wealth of archival documents to support her analysis of the new mode’s sociological dynamics; one of the book’s pleasures lies in its black-and-white and color illustrations of omnibus-related caricatures, paintings, postcards, press clippings, advertisements, vaudeville songs, fashion, and even a board game.Engine of Modernity is more, however, than a cultural history of a mode of transport. Belenky’s book proposes the thesis that the omnibus not only fundamentally changed the material conditions of urban life as a “motor” of new sociabilities but also inspired innovations in literary form. As both vehicle and storytelling device with “powerful figurative and self-reflexive potential” the omnibus became a “super-topos” marked by heterogeneity (5, 165). In physiologies, story collections, popular vaudevilles, and more canonical works like Zola’s La Curée, the logic of chance encounters defines both the content and the mode of writing. Belenky deftly crosses the lines between intra- and extra-diegesis to trace a repertoire of recurring features in middlebrow tales of transit, including first-person narration by an “omnibus flâneur,” urban description, marriage plots, and themes of estrangement or connection in the enclosed space of the omnibus car. Bourgeois anxieties about a society in flux get staged through everything from an overturned omnibus turned revolutionary barricade in Hugo’s Les Misérables to the alienating sensory experience of working-class passengers emitting pungent smells in the cramped space of the omnibus in Maupassant’s short story “La Dot.” And in other literary texts, the bodily realities of sloppy wet nurses and bulky crinoline skirts crystallize wider discourses about transgressive female behavior and women’s bodies in public space, which Belenky usefully situates within critical work by scholars like Griselda Pollock, Catherine Nesci, Sharon Marcus, Marni Kessler, Temma Balducci, and Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson. Engine of Modernity ends cleverly with a “final stop” addressing fin de siècle ambivalence about the omnibus as an emblem of urban modernity and mobility: Fortuné du Bosgovey’s Le Crime de l’omnibus and Zola’s Au bonheur des dames call attention to its violent dangers, while Octave Uzanne’s article “Omnibus de Paris” provides a nostalgic elegy for this mode of transport as it nears definitive obsolescence. Belenky’s book is a valuable resource for scholars and students interested in the rich, intertwined histories of literary mobility and transportation technology of the nineteenth century—a subject that continues to flourish, as evidenced by Kari Weil’s newly published Precarious Partners: Horses and Their Humans in Nineteenth-Century France and Seth Whidden and Corry Cropper’s forthcoming Velocipedomania: A Cultural History of the Velocipede in France.

Determinants of holistic passenger experience in public transportation: Scale development and validation

Airport landside operations, including check-in, parking, and retail areas, require efficient management to handle dynamic passenger flows. Digital Twin (DT) technology offers a solution by creating a virtual replica of these areas, updated in real time by IoT sensors and artificial intelligence. DT models enable predictive simulations, critical points identification, and operations optimization, such as queue management and passenger routing—before implementation. A modular implementation approach allows for progressive integration, improving decision-making and passenger experience while reducing risks. With the advancement of IoT and data analytics technologies, DT models are a cost-effective tool for efficient airport management. This paper proposes the integration of Digital Twin (DT) technology as a transformative solution. A multi-level conceptual framework for a Landside Airport Digital Twin (LADT) is developed, structuring the system into four interconnected layers: data acquisition from heterogeneous sources, data management and communication, advanced modeling and analysis, and interactive visualization. The article analyzes the strategic and operational benefits of this framework. Major implementation challenges are evaluated, with a focus on the fundamental dilemma between the utility derived from detailed analysis of passenger data and the imperatives of cybersecurity and privacy, as per regulations such as GDPR.

The role of physical and social environments on the loyalty toward urban rail services: A consideration of stations and onboard

The article dwells on the tram service as the key means of passenger transportation in the cities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Using data for the Chelyabinsk Region, the paper aims to identify factors that influenced the quality of passenger transportation, passenger experience with the tram, and conflicting assessments of the quality of passenger transportation. The research was performed within the framework of the methodology of economic history, supplemented by the provisions of the theory of mobilities, and is an attempt to present the history of passenger transportation as a multifactorial process. The authors examine the formal and qualitative characteristics of the tram service: the dispatch system, the state of the tram stops and the rolling stock, the total number of cars, the number of cars on the line, the power supply for the trams, and the experience of passengers waiting for the tram. Passengers and local newspapers often criticized the trams for running late, although long waits were quite common. However, despite constant criticism, the tram remained the leading urban transport in the 1930s and 1940s since it was important for Soviet industrialization. Based on the analysis of archival documents and periodical press materials, the authors conclude that the residual principle of supplying tram enterprises of the Chelyabinsk Region with cars and the secondary role of urban electric transport in the structure of the Soviet economy had a negative impact on passenger transportation, whose main function during the period of industrialization and the Great Patriotic War was to take workers to and from industrial enterprises. By the end of the 1940s, connecting places of residence with social and cultural facilities had become more important.

Icy roads and urban environments. Passenger experiences in autonomous vehicles in Finland

Research on the use of autonomous vehicles as a mode of public transport in a city context is lacking. This paper focuses on the use of recently established autonomous buses (self-driving electric shuttle buses) running along a regular public transport line in a residential area of Oslo, Norway. We use a mixed-methods approach based on survey and interview data from two independent studies. The paper examines intentions to use autonomous buses before and after these were introduced in the case area as well as how passengers experience traveling by autonomous bus. Results show that the intention to use the autonomous buses was mostly positive both before and after using them. Most users felt safe while traveling by autonomous bus. Two suggestions for improvement made by the users were to: increase the speed and reduce the abrupt breaking of the autonomous buses. Overall, outcomes from this paper suggest that residents would be willing to use autonomous buses if these offer more frequent bus departures than the existing ones. However, as full automation has not been achieved yet and there is a host on board who can control the vehicle if necessary, passenger experiences and intentions to use should be reassessed with fully automated buses in future studies.

Public transport information provision in rural areas is often fragmented and of poor quality at best and non-existent at worst. This can have a significant impact on the everyday life of the inhabitants of rural areas, particularly in terms of limiting their travel choices and thereby their opportunities to access goods, service and social networks. Inadequate information provision also poses significant challenges during times of transport disruption. In this paper we examine the responses from a series of interviews (69) and focus groups (9) in which we explored the rural passengers’ experience during disruption, their coping strategies, and their behavioural responses to disruption. We identify that each passenger experiences disruption uniquely, and that the behavioral adaptation of the passenger relates to the severity and impact of the disruption. Furthermore, we identify that the most prevalent ways of mitigating the impacts of disruption is through time buffering and the use of kinship networks. Based on these findings and six co-design sessions with rural passengers we were able co-design and develop a prototype passenger information system to support the passenger during disruption. The results of this work aim to advance understandings of the interplay of technology, information provision, and passenger experience under disruption.

Dataset on passenger experience after riding an autonomous ferry.

This chapter offers a concise introduction to Victorian Environmental Nightmares and presents a critical context for the volume. We conceived this collection as a continuation of and supplement to our previous collections, Victorian Writers and the Environment: Ecocritical Perspectives (Routledge, 2017) and Animals in Victorian literature and Culture: Contexts for Criticism (Palgrave, 2017). Although ecocriticism and animal studies have evolved into distinct enterprises that have had a complicated and sometimes antagonistic relationship in the past, we consider these critical orientations closely linked, and essays in the new collection frequently turn to the literary representations of nonhuman animals. As we completed the two earlier collections, we were struck by the ways in which Victorian literary responses to environmental change often moved beyond realistic depictions of natural disasters, air and water pollution, or the unchecked growth of urban environments (among other examples). As the new collection demonstrates, writers focusing on Victorian environments might include depictions of such events and activities in realistic fiction or polemical poetry, but environmental nightmares—both real and imaged—often strained the limits of traditional genre and canonical categories. Thus, the essays in the current volume often employ genre categories that are considered less significant or problematic, such as children’s literature, travel literature, science fiction, and fairy tales. Moreover, the volume includes work on literary figures not typically associated with ecocriticism (including Frances Trollope, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ouida, and Oscar Wilde, among others). In addition, “environmental nightmares” are not only restricted to depictions of British environments but also include depictions of environments in the Americas and in Australia as well. Thus, we have chosen a simple but effective organizing scheme for the volume, placing essays into the categories “At Home,” “Abroad,” and “Imagined Landscapes.” In selecting essays for the volume, we attempted to address some basic oversimplifications and exclusions of ecocriticism as articulated by Jesse Oak Taylor in a 2015 review essay. We have commissioned essays that avoid “the celebration of a de-historicized ‘Nature,’ idealizing wilderness rather than engaging with urban environments, uncritical and often largely metaphorical absorption of scientific terminology, inadequate attention to race and empire, and … a fixation on essences and abstractions rather than the dimensions of scale.” The essays in this new collection consistently address the very categories and topics that Taylor asserts have frequently been missing from a sophisticated version of Victorian ecocriticism. The Introduction also includes a brief overview of several recent collections of essays on Victorian literature from an ecocritical perspective. The Introduction concludes with a concise overview of the twelve essays that make up the collection.

Figuring out the action mechanism of carbon emission trend on the influencing factors of urban thermal environment from the perspective of transportation energy consumption is of great significance for transforming citizens’ means of transportation and promoting sustainable development of urban environment. However, existing studies on urban thermal environment generally focus on the quantification of urban landscape forms, the correlation analysis, or the analysis of relative importance, few of them have concerned about the action mechanism of fluid flow, heat transfer, pollutant diffusion and other process parameters on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect with both transportation energy consumption and carbon emission trend taken into consideration. For this reason, this paper gave the spatial structure of urban thermal environment, constructed fluid flow control equation, heat transfer control equation, pollutant diffusion control equation, and turbulence model for the urban thermal environment; then, it quantitatively analyzed the UHI intensity and air pollutant concentration, aiming to alleviate the UHI effect under the influence of transportation energy consumption and carbon emission trend. At last, this paper used experimental results to verify the effectiveness of the constructed model and gave the analysis results of thermal environment in the target city.

Air quality inside vehicles has a direct impact on the health and comfort of passengers, particularly in heavily polluted urban traffic environments. This study presents the design and development of an integrated monitoring and alert system for air quality, temperature, and humidity within automobiles. The system is built upon a combination of environmental sensors and an Arduino-based microcontroller unit. It is capable of detecting when measured parameters exceed predefined safety thresholds and provides real-time alerts to the occupants. Additionally, the system proposes automatic control solutions for the vehicle’s ventilation and humidity regulation systems in cases of excessively high or low humidity, thereby improving the overall in-cabin environment. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that the system operates reliably, with fast response times and consistent performance across a range of air quality conditions. The proposed solution enhances driver and passenger experience by ensuring a safer and more comfortable in-vehicle environment

Passengers in rural areas are provided with little or no information regarding public transport disruptions. This can result in high levels of travel uncertainty with significant potential to affect travel behaviour. This paper, through 52 interviews, and 7 focus groups in rural areas in Scotland and England, explores the passenger experience, and the technology usage of individuals during disruption. The analysis indicates that a wide range of behavioural responses are evident, extending well beyond the choice of route or mode of transport. Further, we identify that the individual utilises various technologies (e.g. social media), and kinship networks to insulate against the effects of disruption. In addition, we present the co-design process of a set of technologies (a smartphone application and and an SMS service) that aim to improve the passenger exprience during disruption. This work provides an initial step towards understanding the interplay between disruption, passenger experience, and the design space for improving the passenger experience of individuals during disruption.KeywordsFocus GroupTravel BehaviourKinship NetworkArterial RoadVariable Message SignThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

With the acceleration of urbanization in China, large cities, especially mega cities like Beijing, are facing serious traffic congestion problems. As a key tool to alleviate urban traffic pressure and improve urban operational efficiency, the construction and operation of the Beijing subway have received widespread attention. This study adopts comparative analysis and case study methods to explore in-depth coverage and expansion of Beijing's subway network, passenger experience and service quality, safety management and emergency response, and compares with the operation of other international metropolises. Research has found that the Beijing subway has made significant achievements in improving transportation capacity, passenger experience, and safety, while also revealing issues such as congestion during peak hours, insufficient equipment updates, and the need for improved service qualities. In response to these issues, this study proposes corresponding countermeasures, such as improving transportation capacity during peak hours, accelerating equipment updates and maintenance, improving service levels to meet passenger needs, etc., aiming to provide reference for the optimization and sustainable development of Beijing Metro and even the national urban rail transit system.

Around the world, vast improvements in public transportation methods in urban environments have been made. However, in densely populated areas, the bicycle remains a very useful means of transportation. Its small size and minimal environmental impact are the critical factors that maintain its relevance. Moreover, the advancement of connected devices and sharing-based services have allowed private vendors to develop bike-sharing programs, giving millions access to bike transportation around the globe. These bike-sharing programs rely on the user to check out and return the bike to a designated bike-holding station. With the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) services and wirelessly connected devices, there is a major benefit in enabling vendors to track their bicycle assets. Satellite navigation has come a long way, however, it requires a large power overhead. This paper proposes an energy-efficient bicycle tracking system that utilizes bicycle powered Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and Long Range (LoRa) type base-stations in order to track and maintain a real-time location-based inventory of all assets. The BLE beacons are used to track individual bicycle assets based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) proximity and the LoRa base stations exploit longer range communication capabilities to transmit asset location information between each other, for added management capabilities. Preliminary proximity estimations using BLE beacons in an urban outdoor environment show promising results with proximity accuracy consistently under 2 meters.