Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
Early prams could hide babies from view
Deep sides and large fabric hoods shaded babies from sun and wind—and swallowed them from a passerby's view. The pram was a cozy little shelter with a…
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Colombia’s buses that have no doors or windows
Open sides let warm air rush through, a useful feature on hot rural routes where passengers and cargo need to climb aboard quickly. These buses trade…
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Some bus drivers worked inside a glass oven
On some older buses, the engine sat close to the driver’s cab, and glass around the workspace trapped its heat. The driver got a clear view of the road and a…
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Why hoverboards don't actually hover
A hoverboard’s gyroscopes detect when the rider leans, then motors adjust the wheels to keep the deck balanced. Nothing leaves the pavement; the board just…
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Why Vespas Have a Wide Front Shield
The broad shield blocks wind and road spray from the rider’s legs and torso. It also gives the scooter’s front end a smooth surface for air to flow around,…
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Cuba turned trailers into camel-shaped buses
During Cuba’s 1990s fuel crisis, truck tractors pulled huge passenger trailers built with two raised sections. The humps gave the makeshift buses their…
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Why Onewheels leave cities guessing
A self-balancing, one-wheel board doesn’t fit neatly into rules written for bicycles or scooters, which have pedals, handlebars, or two wheels. Cities have to…
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What omnibus really means
“Omnibus” comes from Latin for “for all.” The name suited a horse-drawn public carriage that carried passengers together along a route. Before buses had…
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Why chopper motorcycles are called choppers
Custom builders cut away fenders and excess frame to make motorcycles lighter and leaner. The name is literal: they chopped the bike, then gave the result a…
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A non-leaning trike corners more like a car than a motorcycle
A rigid three-wheel setup can stay upright at a stop, but it doesn't bank into a curve like a two-wheeler. The rider feels the sideways force while the…
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Why “escalator” stopped being a brand name
“Escalator” began as a trademark for a moving staircase. People used the brand name for the whole machine until it became an everyday word—a corporate logo…
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This biogas motorcycle gave its rider a toilet seat
TOTO's Toilet Bike Neo ran on processed biogas and used a porcelain toilet as its seat. The gas came from waste processing, not from the person riding it. The…
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Open-top buses began as a practical workaround
An open upper deck gave early double-decker buses extra seats without the expense and weight of enclosing them. It was an efficient way to move a…
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Polo played on Segways
A Segway polo player steers with the handlebar while swinging a mallet, balancing speed, direction, and a ball that refuses to stay put. It’s polo with a…
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The pogo stick turned a spring into a test of balance
Each landing compresses the spring; its rebound lifts the rider again. The difficult part is keeping that narrow support beneath your center of mass through…
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Bendy buses routinely block entire intersections
An articulated bus bends in the middle, but its long body still needs room to swing through a turn. The front clears the corner while the rear follows a wider…
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Why spiral escalators are so rare
Every step on a spiral escalator has to turn around a curve while staying level. That takes complicated tracks and carefully shaped steps, all for a ride that…
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This bus recharged by spinning a 1.5-ton wheel
The 1950s gyrobus stored energy in a flywheel rather than a tank of fuel. Spun up to about 3,000 rpm, it supplied a generator for the electric drive and…
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Snowmobiles once carried doctors through blizzards
Tracks spread a snowmobile’s weight across soft snow, while front skis steer over drifts. That let doctors reach isolated patients through terrain that turned…
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A bus can warm up before its engine starts
An independent fuel-burning heater warms the engine's coolant and passenger compartment before departure. Instead of waiting for a cold engine to produce…
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Chaperoned walking buses exist for children
Adults walk a set route, collecting children at planned stops and accompanying them to school. The group gets supervision and company, while the morning…
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These tiny bikes are built for adults
These bikes pair adult-sized frames with small wheels, shrinking the space they take up in a crowded city or hallway. The trade-off is that potholes feel…
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Cafe-racer folklore used a jukebox as a stopwatch
The famous story has riders racing to a landmark and back before a record finished. It captures the stripped-down speed culture around British motorcycle…
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Electric unicycles make riders look like statues
The rider leans forward, the wheel rolls to keep up, and onboard sensors keep correcting the balance. From the sidewalk it looks like a person gliding without…
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