Kaleb Robertson

English 101-013T

Professor Boyd

4/22/2019

Evolution of Transportation

Technology has a lot of different meanings to people. Technology can also be presumed

to just about everything we use today. There is one thing about technology that I think has

completely changed the way we live today. The evolution of transporting is what has changed

the world to be as fast-paced today. Transportation is one of the only technologies that gets us

places in a timely manner. Transportation just doesn’t get us places we need to get to, it also

carries other products around the world. Transportation lets us share the world with each

other. Transportation has come a long way, with every upgrade we came a step closer to today;

all from a stick with buckets to cars and airplane. Even though that things have been upgraded

they still have use in people’s daily life.

In the past people had a hard time traveling and hauling things they needed without

exerting a lot of energy and time. This is when the evolution of ways to transport themselves

and product efficiently. Boorstein says “One of the great unheralded achievements of American

civilization was the rise of transportation and refrigeration”. Before the refrigeration of items, it

was mainly how they could transfer product faster and more in one trip. Right now, we have
cars and multiple other vehicles that are fast and efficient. A stick and buckets on the side is

one of the oldest ways of transportation, mainly for water to be traveled back to a village for

multiple purposes. I still see today of people using this method, but they are not using it for a

long period of time. Most of todays culture really does not have to use this method unless you

use a well and don’t have indoor plumbing. Plumbing another source of technology that made

life easier for human life for us to keep our hygiene good. Once plumbing was being used

worldwide the stick and buckets took a back seat.

A device used to transport material rather than humans just like the stick and buckets is

the wheel barrel. Today I still see wheel barrels being used, mainly for construction and yard

work. They used to use the wheel barrel a lot more considering they could carry more, and it

was less strain and more mobile. A wheel barrel is not easy work, but it gets the job done.

People started to get smart; they used horses to travel and well they figured out horses could

haul people around they might as well be able to haul material around too. Horses are still used

today by some cultures for transportation and groceries. Animals became a major source of

transportation worldwide, people created saddles and ways to carry either personal items or

value items. The wheel barrel and animals are very different as a wheel barrel was created to

be used and that is technology. Animals are just a resource being tamed for our use and is not

technology just a source of transportation, but they attachments we added to the animals is

considered technology. We added satchels, saddles, and buggies to animals to maximize

productivity and transportation.

The railroads were another way to maximize productivity and transportation. Railroads

took a lot of man power to put together, it had to be across the United States to reach major
cities and be able to carry over products from city to city. When railroads were built they mainly

it was for carrying product, but people hitched rides anyways. Railroads for its time was the

fastest source of transportation it was the quickest from point A to point B. They eventually

made train carts made just for the transportation of people. The railroads were one of the most

valuable technology created; it created revue throughout America by bringing product to other

cities that did not have that product. It also made revenue by charging people to ride from

destination to destination. Railroads are still a main source of transportation in todays culture

and are more advanced, so they are more efficient then they have ever been. Train cars have

not always been so advanced. The railroads declined the offer to make refrigerated train cars

due to the possibly of less freight according to Gustvaus Swift in Technology and Democracy:

Getting There Is All the Fun by Daniel J. Boorstein. Gustvaus wanted fresh meat in Chicago from

the west and the only way to do that at the time was a refrigerated train car. When the railroad

declined the idea of the advanced train car, Gustvaus into his own hands. Gustvaus made a

handful of his own refrigerated train cars. Not only did this work it did more than just move

meat, it accidentally brought publicity to other area like Georgia. The new train car made

Georgia famous for its fruit. The idea and creation of refrigerated train cars has been made into

cars, planes and many more.

The railroads are a main source of transportation, but there is another main source of

transportation that was made by Henry Ford. Ford created the most common use of

transportation in today’s culture which is the car. The car was first created for the wealthier

people. The assembly line was created which made it faster to reproduce the car, which made it

more affordable for everyone. That is what made the car one of the most valuable sources of
transportation used by people in the world. The car is the most evolved transportation along

with the plane of course. If you would look around today, you would see a lot of cars and

roadways everywhere. Cars are used for everyone’s using to make it easy access and made to

go out whenever they need too. Cars are now used for more than personal use, they are now

used for work and carrying cargo. They have even made cars that carry more people than just

personal cars like buses, so when people cannot operate or get a car they can still travel where

they need to go. Cars now have coolers in them where they can either travel to give to

surrounding stores or they can go to people’s houses to deliver product they may have ordered.

Cars have become the greatest and best source of transportation that keeps todays culture

intact.

Another source of transportation that we rely on to get places faster than usual is

airplanes. Airplanes have come along way they started out by barely gliding now they are our

fastest source of transportation getting you somewhere faster than ever. Airplanes are used for

cargo and transportation. They bring all kinds of product over from foreign countries or just

from state to state. Airplanes are a good source of transportation especially if you are traveling

across the country and must skip across the seas. They have been made to go long distances in

short periods of time for time sensitive needs.

Airplanes are traveled through the air, but boats are traveled by lakes, rivers, and ocean.

Boats start by just being platforms with sides that float and only move by waves, currents or

man power. Boats now have motors to get places faster than before and they now know create

big boats for cargo. Boats can carry a lot more cargo than most points of transportation and
they are typically used if products are not necessarily time sensitive. People do not usually

travel by boats for long periods of time unless it is for a type of vacation like a cruise.

As you can see the evolution of transportation has dramatically changed the world and

we would not be where we are today without it. In a Ted Talk Sherry Turkle said “We expect

more from technology, than we do people”. As you can see today that is true with all the

technology we have in this world we have a lot of trust in technology like transportation.

Without transportation we would not have what we have today. All the upgrades people has

made over the time to today has made us who we are. We use transportation everyday and

that is why we always need ways to keep us on time and do things more efficiently. Even

though we have all these big technological advancements we still have use for all the past

creations people have made.

I honor Parkland’s core values by affirming that I have followed all academic integrity

guidelines for this work.

-Kaleb J Robertson
 Work Cited

Boorstein, Daniel J. Technology and Democracy: Getting There Is All the Fun.

Turkle, Sherry, director. Connected, but Not Alone. TED, 2012,

www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.