Methods of High Speed Travel and How They Shape Our View of the World

Transportation technology has remarkably reshaped how humans get around the planet. But what do we miss when we travel so fast?

Photo by Shiro hatori on Unsplash

“Exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind, and walking travels both terrains.”

-Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Many factors influence the perception and outcomes of our travels. Upon reflection, we realize that much of our travel experience is determined by our chosen modes of transportation.

In just the last century and a half, an astounding pace of technological progress has transformed how humans get around the globe. Before the industrial revolution, our methods of transport were far more cumbersome: either you walked, rode a horse, were drawn by a carriage by horse, donkey, or ox, hopped on a boat if by water, or perhaps dog-sled if by ice. Today, transportation technology grants us endless options in the form of trains, trams, planes, automobiles, trolleys, buses, ships, and ever more variations on this technology that only promise to increase their speeds in the coming years.

As wonderful as it is to conveniently whip around the globe and see far more of it than we otherwise could—moving at the traditional pace of three miles an hour with our feet—it has an unfortunate drawback to my mind. As I write about in my upcoming book,

This type of travel puts a person in what we may call “spatial limbo”, excluded from the more meaningful elements of an actual trip, namely distance, time, and place. These are the crucial ingredients that make the quality of an adventure important and that are unfortunately absent in most of our modern travels.

A consequence of all this novel technology is that the world tends to condense in our mind’s eye when we only travel this way. We begin to have a sense of claustrophobia when we all pack ourselves into tubes in the sky or underground subways like sardines to get whisked off immediately to our next destination. It is as if the world is shrinking as it fills up with more humans and their infrastructure.

Amidst all this incredible growth in technological transformation is an incessant need for greater efficiency, while slowing down seems less of an option and more of a burden to society. What often goes unnoticed in this endless pursuit for innovation and rapid change, as it pertains to travel, is that we’ve unwittingly eliminated much of the thought processes of traveling. Traditionally, getting from A to B virtually anywhere on the globe required an extraordinary amount of planning, imagination, foresight, traversing, and wonder, but now this time frame is little more than an irksome layover in one or more airports or a long, tedious drive; a purgatory in which we’re anxiously waiting to arrive at our destinations.

Don’t get me wrong, I love catching up on my podcasts with the pedal to the metal when I’m driving and enjoy the convenience of easily getting across town when I have to, but I must admit that sometimes while driving, I glance out to see a railroad track and wonder if I might just pull over, abandon my car, and start walking just to see where it goes. There has always been a nostalgia in me for slower times, and I often wonder if it’s part of the key to alleviating much of the stress, anxiety, depression, cynicism, and anger so many of us feel living in the fast-paced lunacy of modern times.

This abolishment of that intermission in traveling and the high speeds at which we can travel helps explain why we perceive the world as getting smaller and filled up. Today, it has become harder to fathom that Earth is quite a sprawling place and still rich in natural and cultural landscapes. In a world ever more demanding of our time, attention, and energy, it makes sense why efficiency is the pulsing heart of technology and business practice, but we should still bear in mind, as Einstein reflected, that “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” To modern-day adventurers who encourage their fellow travelers to fixate on their travels and not so much on an endpoint, this time frame is most celebrated and captured by the phrase, “It’s all about the journey, not the destination.”

It is truly a modern marvel that so many of us can get around the world in a day or two on a modest budget. This is a wonderful improvement, and I wouldn’t wish it away entirely. However, when all of our technology begins to mandate an ever greater tempo of how we must live our lives, when we find ourselves running once again to catch our flight, risking our lives driving across town to catch appointments we are late for, and always feeling like we must move faster and faster to catch up, then living in modern society begins to feel oppressive.

It is important that we all feel that we can walk a rhythm of life of our choosing, but I worry that the structure of society is encroaching on this subtle and underappreciated freedom. What might we be missing out on when we speed across vast swaths of the planet in the way that we do? How do we slow down to move in this world in the traditional manner in which humans evolved? Do we still have a choice in the matter?

If you enjoyed this article, consider these related articles from Those Who Wander on the art of wandering:

• Adventure as a Mindset

• The Flâneur and the Freedom to Walk

• Applying the Adventurous Mindset: Room Travel with a French Aristocrat

• Wandering and Mindfulness: On the Right to Slow Down

• The Case for Slow Travel and Slow Reading in a Fast-Paced Society

• Traveling Versus Wandering

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Cheers!

-JSB