Added: 08/01/2005 |
Transport. Making people's life easier.At first it was animal powered transport that made people's work easier: horses and elephants carried heavy cargo, pigeons delivered mail and camels took people across deserts. 10 000 years ago we started to use animals as vehicles and thousands of years later the first wheeled vehicles appeared - 5000 years ago the wheel was invented. First powered transport was used in the middle of the eighteenth century, a bit later the first balloon's flight took place. At the beginning of the nineteenth century steamships appeared. In 1961 first man performed a space flight. Some years will pass and flying cars, teleportation and vehicles that are faster then light will be available.
Meanwhile, most journeys nowadays are made by road. Some of them are made on public transport, but most are by private car. Many families own two or more cars and spend several hours a day at the wheel. The main problem associated with road transport is pollution. People try to diminish the threat of contamination by using low-pollution fuels and by refusing to use old worn-out vehicles. Nevertheless, the number of cars will increase in future and it'll make the problem even worse. One more problem is traffic congestion, which also cannot be solved yet. The cheapest and the most environmentally-friendly way of traveling is riding a bicycle. Many people in lots of countries go to work, to the university or to school by bike. Besides being the environmentally-friendly, bikes are extremely useful when a person wants to keep fit and stay healthy.
Long-distance travel is usually associated with aircrafts and trains. Rail transport is considered to be one of the safest and one of the most comfortable means of land transport. As a result, it became a major way of traveling in many countries, such as Britain, India, Japan and other. This kind of transport, however, has one plain disadvantage: it's not very fast. Those, who prefer fast journey and want to save time, choose traveling by air. Traveling by air is very wide-spread in the US.
Water transport is considered to be very fashionable nowadays. It is used both for long and short distances. Ferries transport passengers and vehicles across rivers or short stretches of sea almost in all countries of the world. The most well-known cities where boat transport is usual are New York, London and St. Petersburg. Long-term cruises on luxury liners are one of the best ways to spend your holidays. Just imagine: cabins where you feel at home, restaurants, swimming pools, spas, night clubs, sport facilities, shops and boutiques - everything is on a huge white ship, surrounded by the calm waters of an ocean. No wonder, so many people are eager to spend their holidays like that.
Of course, the above-mentioned does not cover all the means of transport. Pipeline transport remains one of the most important means of transportation; its main advantage is high speed and ability to carry a large number people at once. Space transport has provided us with such facilities and services as accurately weather forecasts, satellite television and satellite communications. Modern science seems impossible without using space transport. Space travel, although very expensive, is also available nowadays.
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