Carrosses à cinq sols

The carrosses à cinq sols (English: five-sol coaches) were the first modern form of public transport in the world, developed by mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal.

[1][2] The system of carrosses was approved and instituted by a judgement of the King's Counsel on 19 January 1662: signed by Louis XIV, the letters patent allowed the service to run as a monopoly.

Against the wishes of the King, the Parlement of Paris barred soldiers, pages, and other liveried men from riding in the carriages "to assure the greater comfort and freedom of the bourgeois and meritous classes": these 'safety' measures, along with others such as a police ordinance that threatened "whipping and greater penalties" for those who interfered with proper operation on the service, and a fare increase from five to six sols, eventually caused public opinion to turn against the carrosses, causing the enterprise's profitability to decline.

[3] The precise fate of the carrosses à cinq sols is not documented by any contemporary sources: certain historians suggest that the service disappeared only a few years after the parlement's restrictive measures entered effect.

However, the social hierarchy of France during this period, coupled with the tendency for residents to live close to where they worked, were factors that significantly reduced demand for the service.

Network map of the carrosses à cinq sols .
Commemorative plaque for the 350th anniversary of the launch of the carrosses à cinq sols in Paris; this plaque is located in Clermont-Ferrand , the birthplace of Blaise Pascal.