On October 25, 1911, the London General Omnibus Company, who at one time had 17,800 horses, ran their last horse-omnibuses, these being then definitely withdrawn by them in favour of motor-omnibuses.
A like story is to be told of the rapid substitution of motor-cabs, popularly known as "taxis," for the horse-cabs which, succeeding the earlier hackney coaches, had helped to render so disconsolate the formerly important and influential, though now utterly vanished, body known as "Thames watermen."[[68]] Once more, in fact, the supplanters are being supplanted. "Growlers" and "crawlers" have had their day, and the smarter-looking and quicker-moving taxis are leaving them to share the fate of the stage-coach when it came into competition with the better form of transport represented by the railway.
How far the substitution of motor-cabs for horsed cabs has already gone in London will be gathered from the following table, taken from the report (issued in July, 1911) of the Home Office Departmental Committee on Taxicab Fares in the London Cab Trade:—
| YEAR. | MOTOR-CABS LICENSED. | HORSE-CABS LICENSED. | ||
| Hansom. | Four-wheel. | Total. | ||
| 1906 | 0096 | 6648 | 3844 | 10,492 |
| 1907 | 0723 | 5952 | 3866 | 9818 |
| 1908 | 2805 | 4826 | 3649 | 8475 |
| 1909 | 3956 | 3299 | 3263 | 3562 |
| 1910 | 6397 | 2003 | 3721 | 4724 |
| 1911[[69]] | 7165 | 1803 | 2583 | 4386 |
How the horse is steadily disappearing from the streets and roads is indicated by the records of a traffic census carried out by Mr. H. Hewitt Griffin on Putney Bridge, in Fleet Street, E.C., and in the Edgware Road, and published in the issues of "Motor Traction" for July 15, May 6, and October 7, 1911, respectively.
Mr Griffin has taken his Putney Bridge census for seven years in succession, and, comparing 1905 with 1911, he gives net results which may be summarised as follows:—
| TYPE OF VEHICLE. | A TWELVE HOURS' CENSUS ON | |
| Sunday, June 25, 1905. | Sunday, July 2, 1911. | |
| Horse-drawn buses | 1613 | 33 |
| Motor-buses | nil | 1529 |
| Horse cabs, carriages, etc. | 715 | 225 |
| Motor-cars, cabs, etc. | 361 | 1943 |
The Fleet Street traffic census, taken for five successive years, yielded the following results for 1907 and 1911:—
| TYPE OF VEHICLE. | A TWELVE HOURS' CENSUS ON | |
| April 23, 1907. | April 19, 1911. | |
| Horse-drawn buses | 2241 | 95 |
| Motor-buses | 995 | 2684 |
| Horse-cabs | 1902 | 391 |
| Motor-cabs (taxis) | 48 | 1616 |
In the Edgware Road the results for 1906 and 1911 were:—