When did horse drawn carriages largely vanish from roads? How did cities manage traffic during the transition period when automobiles shared the roads with horses?

by spmahn

Obviously the Ford Model T was the point of divergence between horses being the dominant form of travel over cars, but when did Horses finally go away for good as a form a travel for modern society? Were people still riding horses instead of cars post-World War 2? How did horses and cars manage to coexist? Were traffic laws applied equally to both vehicles?

MrDowntown

Well into the early 1960s, it was not uncommon to encounter a horse-drawn rubber-tired wagon on rural highways in the South, or trundling through the streets of a small city. These were usually driven by farmers taking produce to market, or vendors running a fruit-and-vegetable route much like an ice-cream vendor does. Of course, in Amish and Mennonite areas, horse and buggies are still seen.

In cities, horses were primarily used for freight transportation by the 20th century, as most horsecar lines had electrified in the 1890s. It was extremely uncommon for a city-dweller to ride a horse or take his carriage to a downtown office or nearby factory. It was the development of reliable motor trucks circa 1910 that caused the horse team to disappear from urban America.