Human Transportation

Transportation is all about moving people and their things. You can transport yourself around using your feet, a bike, a car, a train – anything that gets you going from one place to another. Humans have been moving around from place to place ever since they’ve been on Earth. That’s how we get our food and our materials like lumber, concrete and computers from one place to another.

Humans build paths, roads, boats, trains, and cars to make getting around easier. By making transportation easier, humans have been able to get food from other places, find new places to live, and share ideas with other people. For transportation, humans have trampled fields and forests, polluted the air, and created a lot of noise. We need clean, safe, inexpensive ways to get around.

Science with Bill Nye can take you where you want to go in the “Transportation” show.

The Big Ideas

• Humans move around for food, shelter, and to meet other humans
• Humans have always made vehicles and paths to make moving around easier
• Human transportation changes the environment.

Did You Know That?

• The first bicycle had no pedals – the rider used his or her feet to push the thing along?
• The fastest airplane, the X-15, went at 7 times the speed of sound?
• Vicolo della Virilita, in Ripatransone, Italy, is the narrowest street in the world — it’s only 43 centimeters (17 inches) wide?

Books of Science!

• “Transport” by Mick Hamer. Published by Franklin Watts, 1982.
• “Transportation” by Ian Graham. Published by Hampstead Press, 1989