{"id":3332,"date":"2011-10-24T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=3332"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:27:23","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:27:23","slug":"taxicabs-and-the-future-of-getting-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/10\/24\/taxicabs-and-the-future-of-getting-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxicabs and the future of getting around"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image courtesy of Tyler Ingram.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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On October 5th, Maclure’s celebrated 100 years of operation as a taxicab business in the Lower Mainland. Those 100 years have seen a great deal of change in how we get around in Vancouver \u2014 from walking and cycling, to horse-drawn carriages, to streetcars, to, more recently, electric trolley buses, diesel buses, and cars big and small.<\/p>\n

While we can look back on it purely with nostalgia, we can also think about it through the lens of a sustainable urban transportation future, that involves single-occupancy vehicles and more of other modes that both emit fewer GHGs and keep us engaged with our communities. How might we draw upon our past to inspire us in creating what comes next?<\/p>\n

Back to the Future<\/h3>\n

When MacLure’s first started, taxicabs were offering rides on a street like the one you see in the video embedded below. William Harbeck’s film was shot from a camera mounted on the front a streetcar in 1907, as it traversed what is now Downtown Vancouver:<\/p>\n