The writing was on the wall for horse cabs when the first taxis arrived in Ottawa.

Source:

Ottawa Citizen, July 26, 1909, p. 1 (news.google.com/newspapers).

Last Trip: The Death of Alfred Bonenfant / 30

The Automobile

Alfred Bonenfant's death occurred in the twilight of the horse cab era. A little over a year later an article in the Ottawa Citizen introduced the ominous new adversary that would soon drive the horse cab to extinction.

In Winnipeg the one-two punch of the taxicab and the private automobile virtually wiped out the horse cab business in five short years between 1910 and 1914**. It was much the same all over the world, particularly in the larger cities.

Horse cab drivers suddenly found their skills obsolete. Few of them, especially older drivers, were able to master driving a car even if they had the opportunity.

Cab owners and liverymen did not fare any better. Investments in stables, horses and carriages quickly lost their value, leaving little capital or collateral with which to purchase automobiles. Moreover, just as the skills needed to drive a car were very different from the skills needed to manage a horse, the expertise involved in maintaining a fleet of cars was very different from that required to run a livery stable.

Not surprisingly, only a minority of horse cab operators survived the great shakeout precipitated by the automobile.

Alfred Bonenfant's employer, Mederic Landreville, was one of the survivors. As late as 1923 the Ottawa city directory listed him as running taxicabs from his former stable on Albert Street.