A New Leaf

Our perception of the world around us has altered over the millenia as our means of travelling through it has changed.

For example, our earliest ancestors had to go everywhere on foot.

Add to that the mainly inhospitable terrain and the risks to life imposed by large predatory creatures and other adversaries and the contemplation of even the shortest of treks to seek out food, fuel and shelter will have taken on epic proportions.

It is not surprising therefore that those in pre-history confined themselves to a very small geographical area.

This situation persisted well into the Middle Ages and beyond with villagers and town dwellers alike staying put within the territory and amongst the population that they knew and felt safe and secure with.

It was not, for the majority , an entirely satisfactory situation with poor living conditions, poverty and the expectation of a very short life down to the combination of these factors.

With hindsight a modern day psychologist would also attribute the miserable existence to mental anguish, depression and post traumatic syndrome.

So, in effect the world for those only able to travel a daily distance on foot was about 25 miles wide which in reality was about as far as the horizon and rarely beyond unless conflict or enslavement descended as yet more misfortune. Adopting a measure of time rather than distance and the typical known world was encompassed in the hours before dawn and dusk.

What came to be the more common use of horses in everyday life added a bit more scope to travel although such a means was largely restricted to the nobility, privileged classes and those of independent means.

At a steady pace on the four legs of a fit horse the radius of the known world expanded to around 40 to 50 miles in a day. Although there will have been tracks, trails and early by-ways the same dangers existed to the travellers from flora, fauna and felons.

The Pony Express in the Wild West of the United States worked on the basis that a fast galloping steed and rider could last for 10 miles at peak pace and so placed their Relay Stations at these intervals to ensure the swiftest of journeys across the prairies and through the unconquered wilderness of the New World.

Hitch up a wagon and more people and possessions could be transported albeit slowly and surely. On a low cumulative daily mileage basis the settlers and pioneers traversed a whole continent.

Science and technology developed rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries and one of the greatest inventions adapted from an industrial application to the transportation of humans, the steam engine further extended the daily travelling parameters.

Slow at first it was not long before a few hundred miles was a regular excursion by steam train for those able to afford the expense and time. This was a major factor behind the mass movement of population from a rural to an urban and metropolitan existence.

It was through the development of the internal combustion engine that freedom to travel became established as an entitlement rather than a luxury. Cheaper mass produced motor vehicles and of much enhanced reliability and driving range soon caught on as an expression of personal freedom.

As long as there was a good network of places to refuel then it was easy to take on large distances and by definition even more ambitious trips for leisure or necessity such as employment and commerce.

So to the present incarnations of  fossil fuel engines and on a full tank an entirely possible range of 500 to 700 miles in a day.

Our ancestors would be astounded by the thought of such personal travel.

Ironically in our time the average speed even with a technologically advanced powertrain is not really much more than it was at the advent of motoring, this being a consequence of overcrowded roads, roadworks and other contributing factors.

The death knell has however sounded for petrol and diesel engines as we have known them which is inevitable as we battle with climate change.

The Climate Emergency which is of our own doing and to a large extent from our worship of things chucking out emissions demands that we rethink our lifestyles and practices.

I have contemplated for some time the acquisition of an electric vehicle.

The model I have in mind, of zero emissions when driven, has a current range capability of up to 168 miles on a full single charge.

This suggests, does it not, a backward and regressive trend?

After all, my existing vehicle from a disgraced continental manufacturer has supposedly been re-engineered to produce lower emissions and particulates and provides me with a range some 4 times greater than the glorified milk float being considered.

I should not prevented from taking on long and extended journeys if opting for electric propulsion but like my ancestors in the past I will have to plan carefully for any elected route.

The traveller of yore on foot required a place to shelter and to be fed to achieve that daily radius. A horse and rider needed stabling and rooms. Steam trains required periodic replenishment of coal and water: modern cars the same in the form of fuel and consumables.

Any electric means of transport that I look to rely upon will just mean a reliance on public charging stations and the time required to take up a sufficient amount of power to continue on to the eventual destination.

It could be quite an experience in a pioneering sort of way.