What was an improvement in transportation during the early 1900s?

The transport revolution of the 20th century was incremental when compared to the wide-ranging transport technologies that emerged in the 19th century. The invention of bicycles, trams, trains, ocean-going steamers and cars dramatically changed our capabilities as humans.

Dr Maxwell Gordon Lay FTSE, author of The Harnessing of Power: How 19th Century Transport Innovators Transformed the Way the World Operates, explains that the ability to routinely travel long distances quickly was not an important human need, and received little evolutionary priority. In other words, humans evolved in a “low speed world”.

This is an edited extract from the book, exploring the history of personal travel technologies.

For most people, walking was the only available means of travelling within towns and between towns. It was still a very common means of long-distance travel in the 18th century. For instance in England many soldiers would be encountered being redeployed around the country or travelling to and from training camps and embarkation ports.

A revealing mid-18th century travel example occurred when the famous blind English road-builder, John Metcalf, was in London with his local member of Parliament, Colonel Liddle. Liddle offered Metcalf a ride home to Knaresborough in his carriage, a journey of some 300km. Metcalf declined and said he preferred to walk home.

Blind, on foot, and unfamiliar with route, he completed the journey in six days. The Colonel and his carriage took eight days.

Personal travel by riding on the backs of animals or in animal-drawn vehicles was a matter of perceived convenience and not of time saving. Until the 18th century, there was little difference between vehicular personal travel and freight haulage as both used wagon-style vehicles which travelled at walking speed.

Thank the Celts for transport today

Much of the technology appears to have been of Celtic origin. The Celts began building light and sophisticated wheels in about 700 BC. Key features were spoked wheels with applied wear-resistant running surfaces and iron was widely used in Celtic vehicles and harnesses.

A prime example of an early Celtic vehicle with many advanced features is the Dejbjerg wagon from about 50 BC and found well-preserved in the 1870s in a Danish swamp.

Wagons for transporting people came into prominence in the 13th century although many of the innovations were reinventions of much earlier Celtic technology.

A key need was to provide passengers with a smooth ride. However, a wagon with four rigidly attached wheels will always provide a rough ride on road surfaces which are not perfectly flat planes. This is because, as a matter of geometry, the rigid wagon can only make contact at three points. The fourth point is poised above the road surface, ready to descend with a rattling bump.

The Celts found a way around this problem. They had developed good leatherworking skills for harness making, and were able to make leather straps to suspend the vehicle cabin. This reduced the previous abruptness of the bumps and the Roman philosopher Seneca said that his carriage travelled so smoothly that he could write whilst on a journey.

The term “suspension” is still used to describe ride-softening devices in modern vehicles, although they no longer work as suspension devices.

Vehicle technology only slowly improved over the next millennium. The main developments were better harnesses and lighter and stronger wheels.

How iron quickened our pace

Increases in travel speed above walking began to occur early in the 17th century, mainly as a consequence of greater demands by the wealthy for personal travel and, at the supply end, to a wider use of iron in vehicle construction. This use of iron introduces a main thesis of this book.

Iron had many useful transport applications. However, iron making was still a craft rather than a manufacturing process, so its spreading use in vehicles indicated strong market demands. The use of iron for bits and stirrups greatly enhanced the usefulness of horse riding.

For vehicles, iron rivets simplified the attachment of the hauling part of the harness to the vehicle being hauled. Iron studs and plates were used to prevent the rapid wear of wooden rims and iron pins were used to retain the wheel on the axle.

The wearing surface between the wheel and the axle was a major operating problem. The bearing surfaces themselves were heavily lubricated with animal fats and occasionally employed some cylindrical metal pieces although these were more likely to have been the softer bronze, rather than iron.

Iron coil springs were invented in England in 1625 and were soon used to support coach bodies at each of their four corners. A major advance demonstrating the increasing availability of useful pieces of iron occurred in the 1660s in Prussian Berlin where Philip di Chiesa, a person of Italian extraction born near Avignon, greatly improved the rideability of coaches by hanging the leather suspension straps from cantilevers made of flat iron.

Such leaf springs are still used in many current vehicles. Di Chiesa’s vehicles were called Berliners. They were relatively large with an enclosed passenger area. The leather straps were subsequently replaced by iron links.

Germany was then the centre of quality coach-building. Increased competition from the German Berliners led to further developments in Britain, including the work of the multi-talented Robert Hooke and his definition and scientific measurement of the elasticity of iron in the 1670s.

Elliptical leaf springs were developed by Obadiah Elliot in London in 1804 and later I describe how they produced a quantum jump in coach performance.

Elliot was a well-known coach-maker who patented his invention in 1805. The introduction of iron rim brakes in 1690 allowed larger teams of horses to be used to power the coaches. However, braking as we now know it was never a serious issue at the speeds of a horse-drawn coach and the brakes’ major role was to slow vehicles descending steep hills.

Visit www.cambridgescholars.com/the-harnessing-of-power

This is a timeline of transportation technology and technological developments in the culture of transportation.

A traditional Polynesian catamaran

Dionysus riding on a small galley-like craft in a painting from the Dionysus cup by Exekias, from c. 530 BC[1]

20th millennium BC – rafts used on rivers.
7th millennium BC– Earliest known shoes.
6th millennium BC– Dugout canoes constructed.
4th millennium BC– The earliest vehicles may have been ox carts.[2]
3500 BCE – Domestication of the horse and invention of the wheel in Ancient Near East
Toys excavated from the Indus Valley Civilisation (3010–1500 BC) include small carts.
3000 BCE – Austronesians construct catamarans and outriggers.
- In the Mediterranean, galleys were developed about 3000 BC.
2nd millennium BC – Cart mentioned in literature, chariot and spoked wheel invented.
800 BC – Canal for transport constructed in Ancient China.
408 BC – Wheelbarrow referenced in Ancient Greece.

Horse collars and cart between 1350 and 1375

5th Century – Horse collar invented in China.
6th Century - Evidence of a horseshoe in the tomb of the Frankish King Childeric I, Tournai, Belgium.
Late 7th century - First suspension bridge, Maya Bridge at Yaxchilan
800 – The streets of Baghdad are paved with tar.
9th century - The sine quadrant, was invented by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in the 9th century at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.[3]: 128 The other types were the universal quadrant, the horary quadrant and the astrolabe quadrant.
10th Century – sea-going Junk (ship) ships built in China.
Late 10th century – Kamal invented in Arab world.
1044 – Compass invented in China.
13th century (or before) – Rocket missiles used in China. Rocket powered passenger vehicles did not appear until 1939.
1350 – Compass dial invented by Ibn al-Shatir.
1479-1519 - Da Vinci sketches pedalo.
1495-1504 -

Reisszug, as it appeared in 2011
The oldest extant cable railway is probably the Reisszug, a private line providing goods access to Hohensalzburg Fortress at Salzburg in Austria. This line is generally described as the oldest funicular.[4][5]
15th century – Jan Žižka built the precursor to the motorised tank, armoured wagons equipped with cannons.
1569 - Mercator 1569 world map published.
Late 16th century – European sailing ships become advanced enough to reliably cross oceans.

1604 – The world's first recorded overland wagonway, the 2-mile (3.2 km) Wollaton Wagonway, is built by Huntingdon Beaumont in Nottingham, England, for the transport of coal.[6][7][8]
1620 – Cornelius Drebbel builds the world's first known submarine, which is propelled by oars (although there are earlier ideas for and depictions of submarines).
1655 - Stephan Farffler was a Nuremberg watchmaker of the seventeenth century whose invention of a manumotive carriage in 1655 is widely considered to have been the first self-propelled wheelchair.
1662 – Blaise Pascal invents a horse-drawn public bus which has a regular route, schedule, and fare system.
1672 – Ferdinand Verbiest built what may have been the first steam-powered scale model car.[9][10]

1716 – Swedish scientist, Emanuel Swedenborg, creates the first concept of a hovering vehicle.[11]
1731 - Sextant first implemented to accurately determine latitude.
1733 - William Kent developed an early stroller.[12]
1740 – Jacques de Vaucanson debuted his clockwork powered carriage.
1760s - Inline skates invented.[13]
1761 - Marine chronometer invented as a means to accurately determine longitude.
1769 – Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrates his fardier à vapeur, an experimental steam-driven artillery tractor
1776 – First submarine to be propelled by screws, and the first military submarine to attempt an attack on a ship, Turtle, is built by David Bushnell. The attack fails to sink HMS Eagle.
1779 - The Iron Bridge built in Shropshire.
1783 - First parachute.
1783 – Joseph Montgolfier and Étienne Montgolfier launch the first hot air balloons triggering Balloonomania.
1783 – Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert (Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert) launch the first Hydrogen balloon.
1784 – William Murdoch built a working model of a steam locomotive carriage in Redruth, England.[14]
1789 - The pedal powered tricycle was invented by two Frenchmen, named Blanchard and Maguier.
1790s – Canal Mania, an intense period of canal building in England and Wales.

1801 – Richard Trevithick ran a full-sized steam 'road locomotive' on the road in Camborne, England.[14]
1803 – Richard Trevithick built his 10-seater London Steam Carriage.[14]
1803 – William Symington's Charlotte Dundas, generally considered to be the world's first practical steamboat, makes her first voyage.
1804 – Richard Trevithick built a prototype steam-powered railway locomotive and it ran on the Pen-y-Darren Line near Merthyr Tydfil Wales.
1804 – Oliver Evans (claimed to have) demonstrated a steam-powered amphibious vehicle.
1807 – Francois Isaac de Rivaz – the De Rivaz engine, the first internal combustion engine using hydrogen as a fuel
1807 - The Swansea and Mumbles Railway ran the world's first passenger horsecar tram service.
1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, the world's first commercially successful steamboat, makes her maiden voyage.
1807 – Nicéphore Niépce installed his Pyréolophore internal combustion engine in a boat and powered up the river Saone in France.
1807 – Isaac de Rivas made a hydrogen gas powered internal combustion engine and mounted it on a vehicle.
1809 - First stone laid of first 'guided bus' passenger wagonway Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad.
1812 – First commercially successful self-propelled engine on land was Mathew Murray's Salamanca on Middleton Railway using toothed wheels and rail.
1812 – Timothy Hackworth's "Puffing Billy" ran on smooth Cast Iron Rails at Wylam Colliery near Newcastle
1814 – George Stephenson built the first practical steam-powered railway locomotive "Blutcher" at Killingworth Colliery.[15]
1816 – The most likely originator of the Bicycle is the German, Baron Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine while collecting taxes from his tenants.
1819 – SS Savannah, the first vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean partly under steam power, arrives at Liverpool, England from Savannah, Georgia.
1819 - Denis Johnson invents kick scooter.
1822 – Stevenson built a locomotive and designed the railway for Hetton Colliery which is first railway not to use any horse-traction but it did have several rope hauled sections.
1822 – First Meeting of Liverpool Manchester Railway Company Permanent Committee.[16]
1825 - Stevenson's Locomotion No. 1 runs on Stockton & Darlington Railway which opens as first public railway and uses horses and self-propelled steam engines and stationary engines with ropes along a single track. No stations and no timetables as anyone could hire the track to use their own vehicle on it.[17]
1825 – Sir Goldsworthy Gurney invented a series of steam-powered passenger carriages and by 1829 completed the 120-mile journey from London to Bath, Somerset and back.
1825 - The first suspension railway was opened at Cheshunt, England, United Kingdom on 25 June.
1826 – Bill passed for Liverpool and Manchester Railway at second attempt and George Stevenson commences work on 35-mile twin track line permitting simultaneous travel in both directions between the 2 towns. Means of traction not specified to reduce opposition.[18]
1828 – Stevenson's "Lancashire Witch" runs on Bolton and Leigh Railway line - a public goods line to connect Leeds and Liverpool Canal and Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal. Railway has rope hauled and self-propelled steam engines and single track.[19]
1829 – Rainhill Trials to find best self-propelled engine for Liverpool Manchester line are won by Robert Stephenson's Rocket proving there is no need for horse traction or static engines on the main line.[20] Rocket becomes basic formula for all future steam engines with boiler tubes, blast pipe, and the use of coal rather than coke.
1830 – Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens. First public transport system without animal traction, first public line with no rope hauled sections for main journey, first twin track, first railway between 2 large towns, first timetabled trains, first railway stations, first train faster than a mail coach, first tunnels under streets, first proper modern railway which formed the template for all subsequent railways.[21]
1837 - The first electric locomotive built in 1837 was a battery locomotive. It was built by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries).
1838 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Western, the first purpose-built transatlantic steamship, inaugurates the first regular transatlantic steamship service.
1839 - An early electric boat was developed by the German inventor Moritz von Jacobi in 1839 in St Petersburg, Russia. It was a 24-foot (7.3 m) boat which carried 14 passengers at 3 miles per hour (4.8 km/h). It was successfully demonstrated to Emperor Nicholas I of Russia on the Neva River.
1840s – Railway Mania sweeps UK and Ireland. 6,220 miles (10,010 km) of railway line were built
1843 - Dalkey Atmospheric railway opens.
1847 - The first steam railcar was designed by James Samuel, the Eastern Counties Railway Locomotive Engineer, built by William Bridges Adams in 1847, and trialled between Shoreditch and Cambridge on 23 October 1847.
1849 - Sir George Cayley's gliders achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849.[22]

Late 19th century modes of transport, Japan, horsecar, bicycle etc.

First Zeppelin ascent, 1900

1852 – Elisha Otis invents the safety elevator.
1853 – Sir George Cayley built and demonstrated the first heavier-than-air aircraft (a glider).
- - Quadracycle invented.
1859 - First model railway for Napoléon, Prince Imperial.
1859 - Gaston Planté invented the lead–acid battery, the first-ever battery that could be recharged by passing a reverse current through it.
1860 - first urban horse railway line (a predecessor of trams), opened in Saint Petersburg.[23]
1862 – Étienne Lenoir made a gasoline engine automobile.
1863 – London's Metropolitan Railway opened to the public as the world's first underground railway.
1863 – Étienne Lenoir– Hippomobile
1867 – First modern motorcycle was invented.
1868 – Safety bicycle invented.
1868 – George Westinghouse invented the compressed-air brake for railway trains.
1868 – Louis-Guillaume Perreaux's steam velocipede, a steam engine attached to a Michaux velocipede.[24]
1870 - First definite record of a kicksled.
1874 - Midland railway introduces the first bogie.
1875 - World's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky.[25][26]
1880 – Werner von Siemens builds first electric elevator.
1881 - World's first commercially successful electric tram, the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883.
1882 - The trolleybus dates back to 29 April 1882, when Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens demonstrated his "Elektromote" in a Berlin suburb. This experiment continued until 13 June 1882
1883 - Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram, Vipenna, Austria, first electric tram powered by overhead wire.
1884 - Thomas Parker built a practical production electric car in Wolverhampton using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.
1885 – Karl Benz invents the first car powered by an internal combustion engine, he called it the Benz Patent Motorwagen.[27]
1887 - The first Battery electric multiple unit (battery rail car) was used on the Royal Bavarian State Railways.[28]
1888 - Flocken Elektrowagen built by German inventor Andreas Flocken, the first true electric car.
1889 - The first interurban tram-train to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889.
1889 - First introduced in 1889, battery vehicles milk floats expanded use in 1931 and by 1967 gave Britain the largest electric vehicle fleet in the world.
1890s – Bike boom sweeps Europe and America with hundreds of bicycle manufacturers in the biggest bicycle craze to date
1890 - The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world,[29][note 1] and the first major railway to use electric traction
1893 - Recumbent bicycles invented.
1893 - first moving walkway debuted at the World's Columbian Exposition.
1893 - The Liverpool Overhead Railway opened on 6 March 1893 with 2-car electric multiple units, the first to operate in the world.
1893 - Frank W. Hawley adapted an ordinary steam canal boat to a trolleyboat (named after him), which was tested on the Erie Canal in the US.[30]
1893 - First sidecar.[31]
1894 – Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first motorcycle available to the public for purchase.
1895 - First motorbus.

The first internal combustion omnibus of 1895 (Siegen to Netphen)
In Siegerland, Germany, two passenger bus lines ran briefly, but unprofitably, in 1895 using a six-passenger motor carriage developed from the 1893 Benz Viktoria.[32]
1896 – Jesse W. Reno builds first escalator at Coney Island, and then reinstalls it on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge.
1896 - First battery powered monorail, Ontario Southern Railway (Ontario).
1897 – Charles Parsons' Turbinia, the first vessel to be powered by a steam turbine, makes her debut.
1897 – Most likely the first electric bicycle was built in 1897 by Hosea W. Libbey.[33]
1899 - The Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid was both the world's first hybrid vehicle, and the first four-wheel drive without a steam engine.
1899 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin builds the first successful airship.[34]
1900 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin launches the first successful airship.[34]

Early 20th Century modes of road transport in Dublin, 1929

1903
- Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright – Fly the first motor-driven airplane.
- Diesel engine – Tested in a canal boat by Rudolph Diesel, Adrian Bochet and Frederic Dyckhoff.
- first diesel motorship was also the first diesel–electric ship, the Russian tanker Vandal from Branobel, which was launched in 1903
1904 - The first non-experimental trolleybus system was a seasonal municipal line installed near Nantasket Beach in 1904; the first year-round commercial line was built to open a hilly property to development just outside Los Angeles in 1910.
1906 - Early hydrofoil used by Enrico Forlanini.
1907 - The London Electrobus Company started running a service of battery-electric buses between London's Victoria Station and Liverpool Street on 15 July 1907.
1908 - the Kohlerer-funicular went into service in Bolzano. It was the first modern (enclosed) cable car in the world to carry passengers.
1908 – First mass-produced automobile- Henry Ford develops the assembly line method of automobile manufacturing with the introduction of the Ford Model T.
1910 - Fabre Hydravion first seaplane.
1911 – Selandia launched – First ocean-going, diesel engine-driven ship.
1912 - The world's first diesel locomotive (a diesel-mechanical locomotive) was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland.
1912 - Articulated trams, invented and first used by the Boston Elevated Railway.[35]
1914 - The first application of railway electric traffic light signals was by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad's use of the US&S "Style L" colour light signal on their line through the Pacific Northwest.
1915
- The Luftkissengleitboot Hovercraft – First hovering vehicle was created by Dagobert Müller. It could only travel on water.
- Motorized scooter invented.
- A British commission was tasked with creating a vehicle able to cross a 4 ft wide trench – the tank.[36]
1916 – First tank prototype, nicknamed "mother", was created by Britain during World War I.[37]
1919 - HD-4 first hydroplane launched by Alexander Graham Bell.
1923 - First controlled autogyro rotorcraft flight in Cierva C.4.
1924 - The world's first functional diesel locomotive (diesel-electric locomotive) (Eel2 original number Юэ 001/Yu-e 001) started operations, designed by a team led by Yuri Lomonosov and built 1923–1924 by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen in Germany.
1926 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket.
1928 - First Moth (dinghy) built in Inverloch.
1932 - The first electric golf cart was custom-made in 1932, but did not gain widespread acceptance.[38]
1935 – First flight of the DC-3, one of the most significant transport aircraft in the history of aviation.[39]
1939 - 20 June - First rocket powered aircraft, the Heinkel He 176, takes flight.
1939 – 27 August - First jet engine aircraft, the Heinkel He 178, takes flight.
1940 - First fully articulated bus Isotta Fraschini TS40.
1942 – V2 rocket covers a distance of 200 kilometres (120 mi).
1943 - Traffic cone invented.
1947 – Chuck Yeager in the Bell X1 completes the first supersonic manned flight.

A 0 series Shinkansen high-speed rail set in Tokyo, May 1967

Concorde 001 first flight in 1969

Space shuttle launch

C5 enthusiasts gather at the Brooklands Museum

1950 - First Heritage railway.
1952 - Supramar launched the first commercial high-speed craft, a hydrofoil.
1952 - de Havilland Comet first commercial jet air liner.
1955 – First nuclear-powered vessel, USS Nautilus, a submarine, is launched.
1956 - Demonstration of SR.N1, first modern hovercraft by Christopher Cockerell.
1957
- Sputnik 1 – First artificial satellite to be launched into orbit.
- Gateway City – World's first purpose-built container ship, enters service.
- First flight of the Boeing 707 – First commercially successful jet airliner.
1959 - The first modern fuel cell vehicle was a modified Allis-Chalmers farm tractor, fitted with a 15 kilowatt fuel cell, around 1959.[40]
1961 – Vostok 1, first crewed space mission, designed by Sergey Korolyov, makes two orbits around the Earth with Yuri Gagarin.
1962 - The first ascending-gliding parachute was developed by Pierre-Marcel Lemoigne in 1962.[41][42][43]
1964 - Shinkansen first high-speed rail.
1966 - Caspian Sea Monster ground effect vehicle introduced.
1967 - Automatic train operation introduced on London Underground.
1968 - Space hopper invented.
1969
- First flight of the Boeing 747 – First commercial widebody airliner.
- NASA rocket technology, spurred on by the US/Russia Space Race – Makes the first crewed Moon landing a reality.
- Lolo ball invented.
1971 – Salyut 1, first space station, launched by Soviet Union.
- Runcorn busway was the world's first bus rapid transit system.[44]
1973 - Stadtbahnwagen B hybrid tram-train on heavy rail tracks developed. First modern premetro since interurbans.
1975 – Morgantown PRT, first Personal Rapid Transit system to be installed.
1976 – Concorde makes the world's first commercial passenger-carrying supersonic flight.
1977 - The first semi-automated car was developed in 1977, by Japan's Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, which required specially marked streets.
1980 - Modern guided bus passenger service introduced in Essen.[45]
1981 – Maiden flight of the Space Shuttle.
1981 - The first fully Automated guideway transit driverless people mover train technology introduced on Port Island Line, Japan.
1983 - First Automated guideway transit driverless metro, and one of the first fully driverless train technologies, Véhicule Automatique Léger introduced in Lille Metro, France.
1984 - First commercial maglev, albeit low-speed opens in Birmingham.
1985 - Sinclair C5, the first mass-produced electric battery velomobile launched.
1989 - Snakeboard invented.
1990 - First transport simulation computer game Railroad Tycoon released.
1990 - ADtranz low floor tram world's first completely low-floor tram introduced.
1994 – Channel Tunnel opens.
1994 - Modern kickbike invented in Finland.
1997 – First Maglev train prototypes are tested in Japan.
1997 - Toyota RAV4 EV, first nickel-metal hydride batteries (NiMH) electric car. Toyota Prius first mass-produced full hybrid car.
1997 - Nissan R'nessa, first short-run production lithium-ion battery electric car.
1998 - First ion-propulsion spacecraft Deep Space 1 launched.
1998 - Honda Raccoon Compo, first folding electric bicycle in Japan.[46]
1999 - Trikke (wiggle scooter) invented.
2000 - Honda Step Compo, first folding electric bicycle internationally available.
2000 - TransMilenio, first modern bus rapid transit.

2001 - Germany trials capa vehicle hybrid buses in Nuremberg using an ultracapacitor to store electrical energy.[47][48]
2002 – Segway PT self-balancing personal transport was launched by inventor Dean Kamen.
2003 - Concorde makes last passenger flight.[49]
2003 - First modern Ground-level power supply technology, Bordeaux tramway.
2003 - Germany introduces capa vehicle trams in Mannheim.[50][51]
2003 - NE Train trials first hybrid train to use lithium-ion batteries.[52]
2004 – First commercial high speed Maglev train starts operation between Shanghai and its airport.[53]
2004 - First modern urban transit aerial cable car Metrocable (Medellín).[54][55]
2008 - Tesla Roadster, first mass production lithium-ion battery electric car.
2009 - Škoda 15 T world's first completely low-floor tram with articulated bogies introduced.
2010s - Mobile apps and online platforms for finding, planning, offering and booking affordable public transport such as buses as well as carsharing, bicycle sharing and carpooling emerge and are becoming popular along with associated transportation infrastructure networks (examples: BlaBlaCar, Flixbus)[56][57]
2010 – ULTra (rapid transit), the first modern commercial Personal Rapid Transit system to be installed. Started operations at Heathrow Airport.
2010 - IKAROS spacecraft launched with solar sail propulsion.
2013 - Self-balancing scooter invented.
2015 - In March, China South Rail Corporation (CSR) demonstrated the world's first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tramcar at an assembly facility in Qingdao.[58][59]
2015 - Navya SAS launch first autonomous bus, Navya Autonom Shuttle at Sheba Medical Center, Israel.[60]
2016 - First hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger aircraft flight DLR HY4.
2017 - First 100% low-floor tram Ground-level power supply technology, TramWave, opening of Zhuhai tram China.[61]
2018 - Alstom Coradia Lint hydrogen-powered train entered service in Lower Saxony, Germany.
2018 - First driverless trams in Potsdam, Germany tested.[62]
2018 - First mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car, Toyota Mirai.
2018 - First electroaerodynamic thrust winged Ion-propelled aircraft test flight of MIT EAD Airframe Version 2 using ionic wind.[63]
2018 – First commercial hydrogen-powered passenger train launches in Lower Saxony, Germany.[64]

2019 - The Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit opens in China.

~2016-2021 – Various first advanced trials of various types of autonomous delivery vehicles.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][more detail needed]

2020 - First commercial flight of hydrogen fuel cell plane.[72]
2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to lockdowns, temporarily drastically reduces the use of surface (including public) and air transport technologies. Cycling is an exception to this and increased, along with bike-sales, during the pandemic.[73][74]
2020 - Google Maps begins including bike shares in its widely-used route planning functionality.[75]
Early 2020s – Researchers investigate safe ways of public transport during the COVID-19 pandemic.[76][77][78]

Milestones in autonomous sustainable / public transport vehicles are also listed in this section.

2020 - CR400BF-C 'Fuxing Hao', a variant of CR400 Fuxing series, running on Beijing–Zhangjiakou intercity railway is the world first high-speed rail service capable of driverless automation in commercial operations. The specific Grade of Automation (GoA) was not announced.[79][80]
Early 2020s - Multiple electric, autonomous buses open for public transport – albeit with a local professional driving-assistant – are being launched around the world[81][82] after the first such bus started operating for the general public in a Swiss town in 2018.[83][contradictory]
2021 – The pilot project of the "world's first automated, driverless train" is launched in the city of Hamburg, Germany. The conventional, standard-track, non-metro train technology could, according to reports, theoretically be implemented for rail transport worldwide and is reported to also be substantially more energy efficient.[84][85][contradictory]
2021 – The world's first urban autonomous vessels, Roboats, are deployed in the canals of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The ships developed by three institutions could carry up to five people, collect waste, deliver goods, and provide "on-demand infrastructure".[86][87]
2021 – The first autonomous cargo ship, MV Yara Birkeland is launched in Norway. The fully electric ship is expected to substantially reduce the need for truck journeys.[88]

Transport portal

Maritime timeline
Timeline of automobiles
Timeline of aviation
Timeline of historic inventions
History of the bicycle
History of the electric vehicle
Timeline of motorized bicycle history
Timeline of railway history
History of rapid transit
Timeline of spaceflight
Timeline of three longest spans
Ufology

^ A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below ground level.

^ Casson (1971), pp. 68–69
^ David W. Anthony, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press, 2010 ISBN 1400831105 p461
^ King, David A. (1987). Islamic Astronomical Instruments. London: Variorum Reprints. ISBN 0860782018.
^ "Der Reiszug – Part 1 – Presentation". Funimag. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
^ Kriechbaum, Reinhard (15 May 2004). "Die große Reise auf den Berg". der Tagespost (in German). Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
^ Smith, Richard S. (1960). "England's first rails: a reconsideration". Renaissance & Modern Studies. 4: 119–134. doi:10.1080/14735786009391434.
^ New, John (2004). "400 years of English railways: Huntingdon Beaumont and the early years". Backtrack. 18: 660–5.
^ Waggonway Research Circle (August 2005). "The Wollaton Wagonway of 1604: the World's first overland railway" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2012.
^ "1679–1681 – R P Verbiest's Steam Chariot". History of the Automobile: origin to 1900. Hergé. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
^ Setright, L. J. K. (2004). Drive On!: A Social History of the Motor Car. Granta Books. ISBN 1-86207-698-7.
^ "HOVERCRAFT BILL (Hansard, 16 May 1968)". Hansard.millbanksystems.com. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
^ Amato, Joseph (November 2004). On foot: a history of walking - Google Book Search. ISBN 9780814705025. Retrieved 24 March 2009.
^ "History of Inline Skate – when Were Rollerblades Invented?".
^ a b c C.D. Buchanan (1958). "1". Mixed Blessing: The Motor in Britain. Leonard Hill.
^ Smiles, Samuel (1906). Lives of the engineers: Work of James Brindley; John Smeaton; John Rennie; Thomas Telford; George Stephenson; Robert Stephenson and others. UK: The Folio Society. p. 256. ISBN 0-7153-4279-7.
^ Thomas, RHG (1980). The Liverpool and Manchester Railway. UK: BT Batsford Ltd. p. 15. ISBN 0713405376.
^ Smiles, Samuel (2006). The Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The Folio Society. pp. 268–270. ISBN 0-7153-4279-7.
^ Carlson, Robert (1969). The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Project. UK: David and Charles :Newton Abbot. p. 179. ISBN 0-7153-4646-6.
^ Thomas, RHG (1980). The Liverpool and Manchester Railway. UK: BT Batsford Ltd. p. 95. ISBN 07134-05376.
^ Thomas, RHG (1980). The Liverpool and Manchester Railway. UK: BT Batsford Ltd. p. 75. ISBN 07134-05376.
^ Carlson, Robert (1969). The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Project 1821–1831. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. pp. 11–16. ISBN 0-7153-4646-6.
^ Flight magazine 1954
^ "Appearance konka". Горэлектротранс (Saint Petersburg). 2008.
^ Falco, Charles M.; Guggenheim Museum Staff (1998), "Issues in the Evolution of the Motorcycle", in Krens, Thomas; Drutt, Matthew (eds.), The Art of the Motorcycle, Harry N. Abrams, pp. 24–31, 98–101, ISBN 0-89207-207-5
^ C. N. Pyrgidis. Railway Transportation Systems: Design, Construction and Operation. CRC Press, 2016. P. 156
^ Ye. N. Petrova. St. Petersburg in Focus: Photographers of the Turn of the Century; in Celebration of the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg. Palace Ed., 2003. P. 12
^ "Benz Patent Motor Car: The first automobile (1885–1886)". Daimler. Archived from the original on 21 October 2018.
^ http://railknowledgebank.com/Presto/content/GetDoc.axd?ctID=MTk4MTRjNDUtNWQ0My00OTBmLTllYWUtZWFjM2U2OTE0ZDY3&rID=NzA=&pID=Nzkx&attchmnt=True&uSesDM=False&rIdx=MjUyOA==&rCFU=. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ Wolmar 2005, p. 4. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWolmar2005 (help)
^ "Trolley canal boats". LOW-TECH MAGAZINE.
^ "A brief history of motorcycle sidecars". 29 March 2016.
^ Eckermann, Erik (2001), World History of the Automobile, SAE, pp. 67–68, ISBN 9780768008005, retrieved 6 October 2013
^ Electric Bicycle Guide
^ a b "The First Zeppelins: LZ-1 through LZ-4". Airships.net. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
^ MBTA (2010). "About the MBTA-The "El"". MBTA. Archived from the original on 26 November 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
^ "World War One: The tank's secret Lincoln origins". BBC News. 24 February 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
^ Glanfield, Appendix 2.
^ "Golfer Follows Ball In Car Run By Electricity", May 1932, Popular Mechanics article bottom of page 801
^ The DC-3 Archived 5 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ Wand, George. “Fuel Cell History, Part 2” Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine. “Fuel Cell Today”, April 2006, accessed August 2, 2011
^ "Welcome to the Parasail Safety Council - Mark McCulloh".
^ "Parasailing - Aloha Surf Guide".
^ Al-Khatib, Talal (5 December 2011). "Parasailing: What You Need to Know Before You Go".
^ "Runcorn New Town - 7.3 Transport". rudi.net. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
^ "Bus Priority Systems (Bus Rapid Transit) - Special Feature on Kerb Guided Buses (O-Bahn)".
^ Henshaw, David (1 June 2004). "Honda Step-Compo". A to B Magazine.
^ "The Ultracapbus - VAG Nürnberg - Öffentlicher Personennahverkehr in Nürnberg". Vag.de. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
^ Stefan Kerschl, Eberhard Hipp, Gerald Lexen: Effizienter Hybridantrieb mit Ultracaps für Stadtbusse Archived 11 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine 14. Aachener Kolloquium Fahrzeug- und Motorentechnik 2005 (German)
^ "Concorde's last flight: Is this the greatest aviation photograph of all time?".
^ M. Fröhlich, M. Klohr, St. Pagiela: Energy Storage System with UltraCaps on Board of Railway Vehicles Archived 11 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine In: Proceedings - 8th World Congress on Railway Research Mai 2008, Soul, Korea
^ Bombardier, MITRAC Energy Saver Support PDF
^ https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6869881?reload=true&tp=&arnumber=6869881&openedRefinements%3D*%26filter%3DAND(NOT(4283010803))%26pageNumber%3D6%26rowsPerPage%3D100%26queryText%3D(lithium-ion batteries )=
^ "Probably the world's fastest train". TheGuardian.com. 15 January 2004.
^ "The rise of the urban cable car". www.bbc.com.
^ Macguire, Eoghan (13 September 2013). "Skypods: Are gondolas the next big thing in urban transport? | CNN Business". CNN.
^ "Billiganbieter erobern den Fernreisemarkt". Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ Guihéry, Laurent (15 November 2019). "Long Distance Coach Services in France and Germany: the new European competition between Flixbus and BlaBlaBus". Rivista di Economia e Politica dei Trasporti. 1 (2019). Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ "China Presents the World's First Hydrogen-Fueled Tram". 21 March 2015.
^ "China Develops World's First Hydrogen-Powered Tram". IFLScience.
^ "Navya: First Autonomous Shuttle Service Launched in Israel". Bloomberg.com. 18 January 2021.
^ 历经磨难全球首个地面供电的100%低地板现代有轨电车项目终成正果
^ Connolly, Kate (23 September 2018). "Germany launches world's first autonomous tram in Potsdam". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
^ "MIT engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts".
^ "Hydrogen fuel cell train to enter service". NHK World - Japan. 16 September 2018. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
^ "JD.com, Meituan and Neolix to test autonomous deliveries on Beijing public roads". TechCrunch. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ Hawkins, Andrew J. (22 July 2020). "Waymo is designing a self-driving Ram delivery van with FCA". The Verge. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ "Arrival's delivery van demos its autonomous chops at a UK parcel depot". New Atlas. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ Buss, Dale. "Walmart Presses Its Distribution Legacy To Lead In Automated Delivery". Forbes. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ Cooley, Patrick; Dispatch, The Columbus. "Grubhub testing delivery robots". techxplore.com. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ "Self-driving delivery van ditches 'human controls'". BBC News. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ Krok, Andrew. "Nuro's self-driving delivery van wants to run errands for you". CNET. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ The Daily Telegraph
^ "Changes in transport behaviour during the Covid-19 crisis – Analysis". IEA. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ Liu, Zhu; Ciais, Philippe; Deng; Schellnhuber, Hans; et al. (14 October 2020). "Near-real-time monitoring of global CO2 emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 5172. Bibcode:2020NatCo..11.5172L. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18922-7. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 7560733. PMID 33057164.
^ Porter, Jon (20 July 2020). "Google Maps now shows cycling routes using docked bike-sharing schemes". The Verge. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
^ Ku, Donggyun; Yeon, Chihyung; Lee, Seungjae; Lee, Kyuhong; Hwang, Kiyeon; Li, Yuen Chong; Wong, Sze Chun (2021). "Safe traveling in public transport amid COVID-19". Science Advances. 7 (43): eabg3691. Bibcode:2021SciA....7G3691K. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abg3691. PMC 8535823. PMID 34678065.
^ "Transportation Institute releases promising findings of COVID-19 public transit study". Fresno State News. 28 October 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
^ Watson, Rowan; Oldfield, Morwenna; Bryant, Jack A.; Riordan, Lily; Hill, Harriet J.; Watts, Julie A.; Alexander, Morgan R.; Cox, Michael J.; Stamataki, Zania; Scurr, David J.; de Cogan, Felicity (9 March 2022). "Efficacy of antimicrobial and anti-viral coated air filters to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens". Scientific Reports. 12 (1): 2803. Bibcode:2022NatSR..12.2803W. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06579-9. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 8907282. PMID 35264599.
^ "China's Fuxing series, can run up to 350 kilometers per hour (217 mph) without a driver". CNN. 8 January 2020.
^ "World's fastest driverless bullet train launches in China". The Guardian. 9 January 2020.
^ Benson, Thor. "Self-driving buses to appear on public roads for the first time". Inverse. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
^ "Europe's first full-sized self-driving urban electric bus has arrived". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
^ "Self-driving bus propels Swiss town into the future". CNN. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
^ "Germany unveils first self-driving train". techxplore.com. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
^ "Germany: Hamburg gets first fully automated tram | DW | 11.10.2021". Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). Retrieved 15 November 2021.
^ Gordon, Rachel. "Self-driving Roboats set sail in Amsterdam canals". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
^ "MIT deploys first full-scale autonomous Roboat on canals of Amsterdam". New Atlas. 28 October 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
^ Deshayes, Pierre-Henry. "First electric autonomous cargo ship launched in Norway". techxplore.com. Retrieved 11 December 2021.