Road Transport

The first forms of Road Transport were horses or oxen carrying goods over dirt tracks that often followed game trails. As commerce increased, the tracks were often flattened or widened to accomidate the activities. With the advent of the Roman Empire, there was a need for armies to be able to travel quickly for one area to another, and the roads that existed were often muddy, which greatly delayed the movement of large masses of troops. To resolve this issue, the Romans built great roads. The Roman roads used deep roadbeds of crushed stone as a underlaying layer to insure that they kept dry, as the water would flow out from the crushed stone, instead of becoming mud in clay soils. The legions made good time on these roads and some are still used millennia later.

On the more heavily traveled routes, there were additional layers that included six sided capstones, or pavers, that reduced the dust and reduced the drag? from wheels. The pavers allowed the Roman chariots to travel very quickly, insuring good communication with the roman provences. Farm roads were often paved first on the way into town, to keep produce clean. Early forms of springs? and shocks to reduce the bumps were incorporated in horse drawn transport, as the original pavers were sometimes not perfectly aligned.

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, steam powered engines were developed, but most were too heavy for common roads, and were implimented on railroads, where the weight could be isolated to supporting rails, which also reduced the friction or drag. of notable intrest is that common british rail gauge is the same width as the roman chariot wheelbase, as that was the common width for carts ever since.

As the horse drawn carrage was replaced by the automobile and lorry? or truck?, and speeds increased, the need for smoother roads and less vertical displacement became more apparent, and pneumatic tires? were developed to decrease the apparent roughness.

Bicyclists campaigned for good roads early on.

Australia has huge, fast truck trailer combinations called [road trains]?.

For many years, the British and the Americans drove on the other side of the road. In American cars, the driver sits on the left and the car goes on the right side of the road. The author C. Northcote Parkinson has presented a proof that the British way of driving (on the left side of the road) is the natural one.

Sweden used to drive on the left side of the road (like the British), even though the cars had the steering wheel on the left side. Several experts suggested that changing to driving on the right side (like America) would reduce accidents, because drivers would have a better view of the road ahead. A referendum was held in 1956, but rejected the change. Finally in 1967 the parliament decided (against the referendum) to change to driving on the right side. Mortal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents dropped sharply as a result.

Today former British colonies tend to drive on the left, and former European colonies or places that came under heavy American influence tend to drive on the right. Australia and New Zealand both drive on the left. Canada, although it is a former British colony, drives on the right due to its proximity to the United States.

motorcycle

/Talk