As the world was locked for months, traveling seems quite impossible. However, as the economy started to open up, people began going out and find the best mode of transportation to suit their needs.
Cars, planes, trucks, trains, and ships are just the most common ways to transport people and goods. But to make travelling a little bit exciting, here are 10 interesting things about different modes of transportation that you should know.
10 Interesting things about different modes of transportation
1. People want cars, not for speed
Cars are the most common mode of transportation as people are highly fascinated with speed and beauty. However, they also contributed to worsening air pollution.
Before cars came, transportation was a lot greener. Aside from walking or bicycles, horses were taking over the streets with New York City once housed about 200,000 of these four-legged creatures. Yes, the city was quite stinky. Thus, people were too excited as cars came, not because they want more speed, but because they despise traveling with such foul smell.
2. Yamaha makes piano first before motorcycles
Biker clubs and gangs have popularized motorcycles globally. One popular motorcycle brand is Yamaha, which has been featured in some Hollywood movies like Ghost Rider with the chopped that transformed into Yamaha V-Max as well as First Blood featuring Yamaha XT 250.
However, the Japanese company started in 1887 as a piano maker, and it still does up to the present while it also creates cool bikes, electronics, boats, and even industrial robots.
3. Taxi driving can be deadly
A social study in 2016 showed that driving a taxi is the 5th creepiest job while clowns topped the list. This is quite true as this profession is 20 times deadlier than other jobs, based on the 2013 statistics. Thailand, Iraq, and Libya are some of the most dangerous places for taxi drivers. Meanwhile, some murderers or kidnappers disguised as taxi drivers while others have stalked their passengers.
Taxi driving can be deadly
4. Bananas are banned in boats
A lot of superstition beliefs surround boats. For one, carrying bananas when traveling by boat will bring bad luck. Researchers believe this is rooted in the slave trade period when they incorrectly stored bananas in ships. Sailors were suffocated as bananas rot and produced methane gas.
Meanwhile, banana trees were infested by venomous spiders, so bananas were brought to specialized centers where they were processed once they reached their destinations.
5. RV puts the life on outdoors
Recreational vehicles or RVs are highly popular worldwide as it gives owners opportunities to conveniently travel anywhere. In the U.S., around 1 million people live in RVs while RV parks and communities are common since they were first introduced in the 1930s.
Read also: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Will Bring Full Self-Driving to Canada, Norway After US
6. Some crazy items left in buses
Buses used to be steam-powered before omnibus, the first mechanical bus, came in 1833. Currently, buses were one of the cheapest modes of transport travel to short or long distances. However, people also often leave behind some crazy things as they rush to get off, including a prosthetic leg, an urn full of ashes, a life-sized Spiderman doll, and various musical instruments.
7. Airplane with corpses on board
Death comes unexpectedly, it could be from drowning, car accidents, or during flights. However, those who died onboard a plane can only be pronounced as dead once the plane has landed. So what happens to the dead person? They are either transferred to an area with the fewest passengers or just kept on the original seat in case the flight is full while flight attendants cover the body with a blanket.
This means the person sitting next to the dead body would have quite a creepy travel. Good thing, only about 50,000 cadavers fly onboard annually as they died far from home.
Airplane with corpses on board
8. Hot air balloon did not carry humans first
When the hot air balloon first took flight in 1783, it traveled for two miles while having a duck, a sheep, and a rooster on board. The animals were later brought back to the ground unharmed.
The first human hot air balloon pilot was almost condemned as a criminal by Louis XVI. Good thing, the king changed his mind. On 21 November 1783, French marquee François Laurent d'Arlandes and scientist -François Pilâtre De Rozier took the risk and became the first people to travel sustained flight for 20 minutes.
9. The creepy feels of train
In 2018, the Korean zombie film Train to Busan became a worldwide hit. But it is not the first time trains became subjects of horror movies as multitudes of urban legends surround this mode of transport. For one, a "funeral train" transported Abraham Lincoln's body to Illinois after he was assassinated. Of course, it was bannered in the news a Pullman train car was also part of the cortege.
Meanwhile, such eeriness may also lead people to commit suicide while lying down on train tracks. Thus, train companies decided to charge family members of those who commit suicide in trains large fines for interrupting the traffic.
10. Cruise ships can be terrifying
While cruise ships can be synonymous with luxury, they also have dark stories including vanishing people, suicides, murders, and onboard morgues. While there are few instances of sinking cruise lines, a modern cruise ship is more likely to get stranded than to sink. The Viking Sky cruise ship sailed into the angry waters of Norway in March 2019. It had engine troubles and became stranded in the middle of the ocean with more than 1,300 passengers on board.
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Written by CJ Robles
