The early history of transportation

The early history of transportation is important for people to think about especially in today’s world. We have large, fast, gas guzzling vehicles that have contributed over time to our issue of global warming. When suggested that we carpool, buy a hybrid or ‘heaven forbid’ ride a bicycle the majority of us laugh at the thought. The remaining people continue to go about their daily lives taking for granted the resources that fuel our modern vehicles. Imagine being in the early 1800’s and still traveling my horseback and later by boat? In the 1830’s the train era began and I imagine people then were thrilled to have a means of transportation much faster and easier than horseback and wagons. We have public transportation and trains that run today but the majority of Americans refuse to use these systems because of the convenience of modern automobiles. We have not only adjusted to the convenience of personal automobiles but we are very impatient and don’t like to wait to get anywhere, thus why vehicles continue to be made even faster and more powerful. The American home used to own one family vehicle and children used bicycles as a means for transportation but now some households have one vehicle per family member. Transportation has come such a long way but sometimes I think we should convert back to older means of transportation to conserve energy and possibly have a few accidents less per year. This couldn’t hurt anyone and the idea of waiting on public transportation or a carpool could make people a little more patient. The idea of walking or riding a bicycle to get from one point to another can also benefit many of us that are not participating in enough physical activities.