Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Commuterville
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Commuterville
It is 175 years since the word "commuter" was used for the first time. (The word does not in fact describe a traveller, it describes a transaction: regular travellers on the railroad into Manhattan were given the opportunity to "commute" their individual tickets into a season pass. Ever since, commuters have been both travellers and revenue stream.)
Today our great cities inhale and exhale millions of commuters, who start their journey in the darkness of winter mornings in the suburbs, resurface blearily in the heart of the city and return to long tucked-in children in darkness.
It wasn't meant to be like this. Matthew Sweet looks at our imagined world of fantasy journeys and asks if driverless cars, monorails, or high speed transport systems might deliver them in the future.
Producer Mark Rickards.
View all episodes
By BBC Radio 4
4.3
257257 ratings
It is 175 years since the word "commuter" was used for the first time. (The word does not in fact describe a traveller, it describes a transaction: regular travellers on the railroad into Manhattan were given the opportunity to "commute" their individual tickets into a season pass. Ever since, commuters have been both travellers and revenue stream.)
Today our great cities inhale and exhale millions of commuters, who start their journey in the darkness of winter mornings in the suburbs, resurface blearily in the heart of the city and return to long tucked-in children in darkness.
It wasn't meant to be like this. Matthew Sweet looks at our imagined world of fantasy journeys and asks if driverless cars, monorails, or high speed transport systems might deliver them in the future.
Producer Mark Rickards.
More shows like Seriously...
View all
Global News Podcast
7,775 Listeners
Newshour
1,062 Listeners
In Our Time
5,508 Listeners
The Documentary Podcast
1,802 Listeners
In Our Time: History
1,876 Listeners
6 Minute English
1,867 Listeners
Learning English Conversations
1,074 Listeners
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
2,119 Listeners
The Infinite Monkey Cage
1,970 Listeners
Comedy of the Week
493 Listeners
Desert Island Discs
2,079 Listeners
Great Lives
490 Listeners
Lives Less Ordinary
596 Listeners
Profile
108 Listeners
Last Word
45 Listeners
Thinking Allowed
302 Listeners
The Audio Long Read
836 Listeners
All in the Mind
63 Listeners
Private Passions
51 Listeners
You're Dead to Me
3,212 Listeners
The Bomb
1,039 Listeners
Life Changing
71 Listeners
This Cultural Life
132 Listeners
When It Hits the Fan
52 Listeners
Young Again
53 Listeners