This paper problematizes some of the blind spots that exist between feminist and postcolonial critiques of the Habermasian public formation framework through an account of women's claims to urban public space in Ottoman Istanbul. I argue that the eighteenth and nineteenth-century evolution of urban public transportation from horse carriages to trams and steamer boats in Istanbul became a significant site for women to fashion increasingly visible counterpublics, progressively subvert the urban spatial order, and broaden access to the larger public. To make this point, I present archival evidence from 1716-1924 focused on women's historical transgressive practices in modes of urban transportation in Istanbul. These materials consist of letters, diaries, and travelogues on Ottoman Istanbul, authored exclusively by women. What emerges from these materials suggests an opportunity to simultaneously establish the role of women's publics as part of a mechanism of laying claim to urban space and the role of alternative non-Western public formations that venture beyond the foundational value attached to European reading publics.