Automotive Technology and its Link to Human Life and the Environment 2000-05-0009

Transporting people, goods and information was and remains a major precondition for the development of human society. However, transport is also a result of people becoming increasingly prosperous. In human history transport has always played a major part in social progress. When our forefathers began to exchange goods in their capacity as hunters and gatherers, they invented transport and logistics. Even in antiquity transport links and communications were not only a means of safeguarding a community, but also contributed significantly to the people's health and prosperity. Some sovereigns could only govern their empire by travelling all the time, in order to inspect the administration or to hold court. Artists and scientists widened their horizons by travelling and acted as important messengers between the various human settlements.