Pedestrian Struggles

The Chevrolet-Six bus traveling the route Marijampolė-Kaunas, 1930s. The Lost Shtetl Museum collection.

Have you ever found yourself "baptized" by a splash of water from a car speeding by as you stood at a crosswalk?

If so, you would share a familiar grievance with the residents of Marijampolė in 1925. The local newspaper Kas girdėt? raised a pointed question: "Can buses truly splash pedestrians with mud?!"

Though at the time these motorized vehicles, known as motor carriers, were few and far between, they had already ruffled the feathers of more than one pedestrian.

Others complained about the blinding glare of streetlights as they walked. Despite the established public order rules, the lights were so harsh that passersby could hardly see a thing.

Speeding, rule violations, and poor road conditions posed challenges in interwar Lithuania. Nevertheless, motor carriers steadily entered cities and towns, gradually transforming people's mobility.