I don’t mean this as an attack but one could write books about how much cars retroactively shaped perception of transport and city planning before cars. It’s insane. The usual thing seems to be to assume that because everybody has a car now everybody just used to have an individual horse, commuting from their suburbian slash peasant dwelling living place on horse roads with horse congestion to downtown (centrally planned around 50.000 horses to the detriment of 8 cranks that walked). For 99% of history and for 99% of people your options to get anywhere were:
a) walking
b) public transport of some sort
Then came train, bicycle, automobile at around a 50 year timeframe. First one revolutionized public transport, second one revolutionized individual transport and then for another 50 years cars were hated by everybody but the rich dipshits that could afford them endangering anybody else.
You ever hear someone say “roads [or roadspace] was always for cars”? Yeah, it’s that. It’s assuming that because the world is the way that it is now, it used to be that way forever, except horse.
Oh I 100% agree with this, I’m not saying a medieval peasant would be excited to ride a metro because it would solve their like commute issues because peasants didn’t have a commute lol, they could just walk to the fields from town. I’m talking strictly because trains are cool and a medieval peasant would think it’s cool to ride a magical on-land boat.
I don’t mean this as an attack but one could write books about how much cars retroactively shaped perception of transport and city planning before cars. It’s insane. The usual thing seems to be to assume that because everybody has a car now everybody just used to have an individual horse, commuting from their suburbian slash peasant dwelling living place on horse roads with horse congestion to downtown (centrally planned around 50.000 horses to the detriment of 8 cranks that walked). For 99% of history and for 99% of people your options to get anywhere were:
a) walking b) public transport of some sort
Then came train, bicycle, automobile at around a 50 year timeframe. First one revolutionized public transport, second one revolutionized individual transport and then for another 50 years cars were hated by everybody but the rich dipshits that could afford them endangering anybody else.
You ever hear someone say “roads [or roadspace] was always for cars”? Yeah, it’s that. It’s assuming that because the world is the way that it is now, it used to be that way forever, except horse.
Just to add in that some places people traveled on water regularly. Even built canals to bring the water where it wasn’t.
Also in the winter you can snowshoe, ski or sled. If there’s enough snow.
Doesnt dispute any point tho.
Oh I 100% agree with this, I’m not saying a medieval peasant would be excited to ride a metro because it would solve their like commute issues because peasants didn’t have a commute lol, they could just walk to the fields from town. I’m talking strictly because trains are cool and a medieval peasant would think it’s cool to ride a magical on-land boat.