Trams in Bern

Trams are much less ubiquitous than they used to be. Less flexible than buses, they are slower and less efficient when it comes to connecting the edges of a big city. Strictly speaking, they are hardly crucial for the old parts of many European cities, either, because those areas are small and compact enough to be easily covered on foot. However, trams are still extant and functional in many countries throughout the world. Arguably, they owe their longevity to a different kind of experience they provide. Part of that experience is related to one's visual perception of city trams. Modern tram cars are so sleek and streamlined that they look hardly different from InterCity high-speed trains. In Bern, there is an added benefit of colours: while most Bern trams are traditionally red, some of them are painted green - to provide a suitable environment for the cute bears they are featuring. And then, there are routes exploring the maze of Old City medieval cobbled streets... 

Middle Ages aren't usually associated with either socioeconomic progress or too many technological breakthroughs - yet, it was the time when the concept of "city" as such (as opposed to Ancient Greek city-states) first emerged. Hereditary (kings), military (knights) and clerical aristocracy - the ruling classes of the period in question - was to be found in palaces and castles. Cities would require citizens, and medieval citizenship started as a professional, rather than political, concept. In other words, citizens  were first and foremost craftsmen or traders, and they were represented by guilds. It was up to guilds to challenge the existing order of things, and the process promised to be anything but peaceful. For artisans, fighting professional warriors was literally a matter of live and death. The prospects looked grim, and to have any chances whatsoever, the cities had to prepare well in advance and use every tactical advantage they could think of. That's where their craftsmanship and building skills proved to be indispensable.

A posse of mounted knights charging in full gallop, their swords swinging freely, would cut though foot soldiers like a knife through butter. The first task of the defenders was, therefore, to deprive them of space, slow them down and make them turn on a kreuzer. Hence narrow, pliant streets teeming with twists and turns, their houses full of back passages and maybe even secret tunnels enabling mobile footmen to disappear and reappear at will. Such a flexible layout provided the cities with real chances to fend off their enemies' superior forces by turning street fights into almost a guerilla war. Fast forward several hundred years, and previously unheard of trams had to adapt to the already existing layout. Fortunately, they weren't under any attack but the going had to be quite slow - almost slow enough to perceive them as "tourist experience" vehicles rather than regular transportation means.