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Chapter-3

History of Sustainable and Unsustainable Transportation: from


Walking to Wheels and Back to Walking

Transportation history: the intersection of modes, infrastructure


and society

Review aspects of history of maritime-water travel, telecommunications and


aviation necessary for an understanding of subsequent chapters.

Among the major themes and issues explored are:

Modal development, competition, succession: how modes developed and


competed with each other..

Relations between modes, infrastructure, and community form and travel…

How modes interact with land use, infrastructure, environment and societal
and cultural factors are important considerations for planning and policy
making especially as rapid changes occur or need to occur….

The main transportation modalities;

Walking

Walking was mostly a slow-paced group activity. It was another long slow
walk until about 500,000 years ago when Homo sapiens became
distinguished from homo erectus and began to gather in very early seasonal
communities. Walking remained the primary mode.

Early water and marine

Travel across bodies of water resulted in increased trade, population


exchanges and early forms of warfare. About 5000 years ago several
civilizations were building oar-powered complicated boats, some with sails
and oars. Ships played a great role in transporting food, and the military,
and the political and the administrative development of early states.

Animals, sleds and sleighs lighten the load

The domestication of animals and their subsequent use for carrying


materials began between 5000 and 15,000 years ago. Among the animals
are yaks, goats, camels, horses, llamas, alpacas, dogs, elephants, and
donkeys….
Wheels early vehicles and travel-mostly local and for necessity

The wheel developed in Mesopotamia about 7000 years ago and spread
across many civilizations and cultures over the next few millennia, from
Europe, India and China. Group of Pilgrimage

Mechanization and motorization transform travel and society

Over many centuries, wheels, wagons and carriages improved and were
better able to withstand the vicissitude of travel along the primitive roads of
the middle ages and early modern era. These included;

Increased speed of vehicles

Increased load carrying capacity

Travel became easier

These developments transformed the societies experiencing them in several


ways:

Perceptions of distance and travel hardship changed, and travel became less
discouraging.

Demographics changed as populations grew

Colonial expansion and internal migration from rural area to growing cities
became easier.

Access to goods and services increased

Perception of the environment and landscape changed

From hot air to steam: balloons, rail and early steamships

The first human-carrying hot air balloon was launched in Paris in 1783.
Late 17C and early 18c steam engine were developed

Late 18c and early 19c the steam-driven boats developed. Steamships were
used more for river and coastal routes where they could frequently stop for
fuel; wood in the early days, coal later in the 19th c. the steam engines were
developed to power both road and rail vehicles, with the success and
refinement of rail applications spreading much faster than road applications.

Bicycling

19th c, the invention of bicycles by Leonardo da Vinci, it began as wheel-


assisted walking or running machine, the ‘velocipede-latin from fast foot’
or Draisine after its German founder Karl von Drais. It was wooden
wheels and frame of the Draisine allowed the interaction of striding and
wheels to create faster and easier mobility than walking. Draisine did not
perform well on the poor roads and streets. The term applied to it called
‘hobbyhorse or dandy-horse’

In 1860s the nickname for the wooden bike is boneshaker because of lack
of suspension and hard wheel…

The innovation of a high wheel was made possible by advances in metal


wheel and frame manufacture and solid rubber tires. In 1870s added chain-
and-sprocket drive that allowed a significant mechanical advantage without
a large drive wheel. It is known as the safety or diamond frame because of
its shape, lower height and greater ease in balance and manoeuvre.

The safety bicycle resolved the problem of ease and access for most of the
poor conditions of streets and roads.

From WWI to WII; automobile and highway culture

As the automobile popularity grew during the 19thc and early 20thc, an
international car culture enveloped it. These wars led to increase the
demand to improve roads and expand roads and automobiles. The two wars
demonstrate the demand of improve the automobile and trucks for military
uses. In 1928, Herbert Hoover’s president campaign was popularly depicted
as promising “a chicken on every pot” and a car in every backyard, to boot.
But all that promises ended into the great depression…

1945-2000 complication, confusion, new directions:

Transportation and land use..


Post-war expansion of cities, rebuild of bombed cities 1945-1960

Heavy emphasis on highways expansion and transportation- 1960-1080

Growing problems associated with motor vehicles – 1980-2000..

2000 TO the present

There is growing awareness of transportation’s implication in atmospheric


pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) accumulation, as well as growing
concern about the various social and environmental problems associated
with the globalization of commerce.

Rail and railways

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