Sultana Selima - Minicars, Maglevs and Mopeds: Modern Modes of Transportation Around the World

Copyright 2016 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sultana, Selima, 1965- editor. | Weber, Joe, 1970- editor.

Title: Minicars, maglevs, and mopeds : modern modes of transportation around the world / Selima Sultana and Joe Weber, editors.

Description: Santa Barbara, California : ABC-CLIO, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015039284 | ISBN 9781440834943 (acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781440834950 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Transportation engineeringEncyclopedias. | VehiclesEncyclopedias. | RoadsEncyclopedias. | TransportationEncyclopedias.

Classification: LCC TA1009 .M56 2016 | DDC 388.03dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039284

ISBN: 978-1-4408-3494-3

EISBN: 978-1-4408-3495-0

201918171612345

This book is also available as an eBook.

ABC-CLIO

An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC

130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911

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www.abc-clio.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Guide to Related Topics

Aerial Vehicles

Animals and Animal-Powered Modes

Automobiles, Trucks, and Buses

Bridges

Cable Cars, Trolleys, and Streetcars

Cycles

Emerging Technology

Highways and Roadways

Human-Powered Modes and Ways

Railroads and Railways

Rapid Transit and Light Rail

Subways

Tunnels

Preface

Everyone needs and uses some form of transportation to get around. Much of the time people give little thought to this fact. People rarely realize just how differently this is accomplished in various parts of the world. Unlike many books on transportation that focus on congestion, planning, or aspects of travel behaviors, this book is about the different forms of land transportation that currently exist worldwide. There presently is no other single reference book that covers such a wide variety of current transport modes, technology, and routes used around the world. This book is the first of its kind to provide complete coverage of major land-transport modes used in different parts of the world. The fruition of this book is an extensive team effort between the authors and the contributors. This project started with a listing of every mode that we could think of, and then colleagues and others were invited to contribute to the work. Many of the contributors suggested entries that we never had heard of before. We learned a lot from reading these entries and think that readers will be amazed by all the different forms of transport that people use for their daily mobility in various parts of the world.

This single-volume reference book presents more than 150 entries that provide readers with an understanding of the worlds current major forms of transportation in the context of cultures, economies, politics, and environments of a place. Readers will realize that there is no single best way of traveling, and that the possibilities for travelling are almost endless. Many historical land-transport modes such as Roman chariots, stagecoaches, and covered wagons are not included in this book, though they still can be seen on display in museums or in use in re-enactments. Pipelines also are very important forms of transport for certain commodities but are not discussed herein. Instead, this book is limited to those forms of transport in common use that the reader might encounter and hope to use for travel.

We are indebted to our many contributors and the expertise they brought to the project. We are especially very grateful to Michael Kuby at Arizona State University and Shih-Lung Shaw at the University of Tennessee for their encouragement to pursue this project and for the numerous entries they suggested for this book. Stan Thompson, a retired planner in North Carolina, provided assistance in writing the entry on hydrail.

Other colleagues helped us to connect with their PhD students. We are especially grateful to Mark Horner and Darren M. Scott for this. One can only imagine the work required to communicate with the contributors for a project like this, and we acknowledge and appreciate the assistance of Dylan Coolbaugh in this capacity. A number of undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro contributed to this book by gathering information on many entries, and we specifically thank Karen Carr, Carly Everhart, Caleb Hanke, Angela Hasz, Brian OKeefe, and Matthew Walker. We extend special and heartfelt thanks to Julie Dunbar, the editor at ABC-CLIO who gave us the idea for this project and worked endlessly with us throughout the production of this book.

We hope that readers interested in transportation around the world will find this book useful and entertaining, and that it will inspire them to seek out new modes for their travels.

Selima Sultana and Joe Weber

Editors

Introduction

Transportation is one of the worlds oldest and most important activities. Everybody requires some means of transport to get aroundto get food or water, go to work or school, seek medical care, visit with friends and family members, and even to receive a product purchased online. For some, this could involve traveling at hundreds of miles per hour to a distant city by train, or a drive in ones car, a ride on an animal, or even walking down the stairs. These are all important modes of transport around the world, and are among a nearly infinite list of different varieties and subtypes of modes. We all have some experience of land transport, and for most of the worlds population this is the only kind of transport known. There is a long history of ships and travel by sea, and travel by air enables people to cross continents and oceans quickly, but land transport by far wasand remainsthe most important way of traveling in the world.

Walking is the principal transportation mode that has allowed humans to sustain or build settlements since the start of human existence and it remains the primary form of transport used in many parts of the world. The first animal used for transportation might have been the dog, more than 10,000 years ago; many others followed, including oxen, horses, donkeys, elephants, llamas, and camels. The wheel first was used for transport around 4000 BCE , ultimately giving rise to railroads, bicycles, automobiles, and many other types of vehicles. Today there are more than 1 billion cars used worldwide, and 147 countries have some sort of railroad. There are countless variants of these and other land-transport modes, and this book discusses more than 150 of them. Each method included is its entry, and entries are listed in alphabetical order with connections to other mode entries. Some entries are about vehicles (or animals), some are about roads or rail lines, and some are about transport routes or networks. A few entries also discuss new forms of propulsion systems for road and rail vehicles. Some are for passenger travel, some are for freight, and some can serve both. Many of these modes serve in partor entirelyas tourist attractions, including San Franciscos famous cable cars and Indias Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.