A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next

In fact, early stagecoaches were no faster than walking, achieving an average speed of 3 mph along roads that were little more than muddy tracks, and exposing passengers to the dangers of both accidents and highwaymen.

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

And not just cars. GM’s approach to market segmentation and advertising provided the template for American consumerism more broadly. Many of the things GM pioneered seem obvious in hindsight. But that is only because GM’s approach was so successful that it has become the standard model not just for the car industry, but for other industries, too, f

The automobile, it seemed, had arrived in the nick of time to liberate cities from the tyranny of the horse. But how would people react to the coming of this new machine?

Finally, steam vehicles had to contend with opposition from railway and stagecoach companies, which were concerned that steam wagons, running on ordinary roads, might threaten their business, and they lobbied for, and won, legislation to prevent steam vehicles from posing a threat.

When it came to styling, GM’s cars reflected the growing enthusiasm for fully enclosed, “closed body,” designs that could be used in any weather, with solid roofs and side windows. Closed bodies were unusual before the First World War, but the proportion of American cars with closed-body designs rose from 10 percent in 1919 to 85 percent in 1927. H

Paradoxically, the advent of the steam locomotive and the construction of intercity railway links, starting in the 1830s, had helped make the problem worse. Faster and more efficient transport between cities increased the demand for rapid transport of people and goods within them, which required a greater number of horse-drawn vehicles.

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

There have also been efforts to rethink the way suburbs work, by changing zoning rules to encourage the emergence, either spontaneously or through deliberate redevelopment, of mixed neighborhoods of residential, retail, and office space, and forms of housing other than single-family homes. This typically involves a small, walkable town center with