page_title: Stagecoach
section_title: Improved roads
hierarchical_section_title: Stagecoach / History / Improved roads
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Bau einer Makadamstraße zur Zeit McAdams English: Construction of a macadam road, "Boonsborough Turnpike Road" between Hagerstown and Boonsboro, Maryland, 1823. Inspired by the work of John Loudon McAdam. (Painting by Carl Rakeman – see source link for much more information about the painting.)
context_page_description: A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses.
  Widely used before steam-powered, rail transport was available, a stagecoach made long scheduled trips using stage stations or posts where the stagecoach's horses would be replaced by fresh horses. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging.
  Familiar images of the stagecoach are that of a Royal Mail coach passing through a turnpike gate, a Dickensian passenger coach covered in snow pulling up at a coaching inn, and a highwayman demanding a coach to "stand and deliver". The yard of ale drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.
context_section_description: Steady improvements in road construction were also made at this time, most importantly the widespread implementation of Macadam roads up and down the country. The speed of coaches in this period rose from around 6 miles per hour (including stops for provisioning) to 8 miles per hour and greatly increased the level of mobility in the country, both for people and for mail. Each route had an average of four coaches operating on it at one time - two for both directions and a further two spares in case of a breakdown en route. Joseph Ballard described the stagecoach service between Manchester and Liverpool in 1815 as having price competition between coaches, with timely service and clean accommodations at inns.
caption: Construction of a macadamized road in the United States (1823). These roads allowed stagecoaches to travel at much greater speeds.
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