Trackless transport

For single vehicles moving on public roads, in the Russian Federation - Russia and many other states and countries, a width limit of 2.5 meters, a height of 4 meters and a length of 12 meters applies; for road trains, the length can be 24 meters or more. For larger vehicles, special permission is required. Off-road vehicles can be much larger, but in practice it is almost always necessary to ensure the possibility of their transportation by rail , so their width most often does not exceed 3.4 meters (in Russia). Machines with larger dimensions (for example, mining trucks ) often have to be transported disassembled (see also bulky cargo ).

In motor vehicles, freight vehicles and passenger vehicles are distinguished.

As a rule, road trains mean any freight vehicles with one trailer or more.

In Australia, “road trains” is understood to mean giant auto trailers with a large number of trailers.

On June 12, 1966 ^[1] Vladimir Veklich ^[2] in Kiev launched ^{[3] the} first trolleybus train in the world ^{[4] [5]} . It consisted of two MTB-82 trolleybuses interconnected according to the system of Vladimir Veklich ^[6] . Unlike road trains (a vehicle with one trailer or more), trolleybus trains ^[7] consist of two identical units of rolling stock ^[8] and are controlled by a system of many units ^[9] . Trains were successfully introduced in more than 20 cities of the former USSR ^[10] (296 trains in Kiev alone, which accounted for 55 percent of the city’s trolleybus fleet) ^[11] . Using trolleybuses connected by the system of Vladimir Veklich , the carrying capacity of up to 12 thousand passengers per hour in one direction was realized on a number of routes ^[12] . The trains operated MTB-82 , Kiev-2 , Kiev-4 , Škoda 9Tr and ZiU-9 trolleybuses . Cities of the USSR where trolleybus trains were operated, their number and type of rolling stock are presented in the table “ Cities of the USSR where trains from trolleybuses connected by the Vladimir Veklich system worked ”.

In Russia:

• Vehicles moving along public roads are subject to the traffic police ; all others are subordinate to Gostekhnadzor .
• Control and supervision of the legal order of international automobile, commercial freight, as well as commercial passenger transportation (including passenger cars) is carried out by the Federal Transport Supervision Service of Russia

First Transport

The first type of road transport was horses and oxen , carrying goods along paths that often coincided with animal paths. As commerce developed, the paths began to align and expand so that they corresponded to the increased activity of people.

Roads of the Roman Empire

With the advent of the Roman Empire , numerous armies made it necessary to quickly move from one area to another, and the then existing roads were often blurred, which significantly delayed the movement of a large mass of troops . To solve this problem, the Romans built excellent roads. The roads of the Roman Empire used a deep roadbed of broken stone as the bottom layer to keep the roads dry. Thanks to the broken stone, the water left, instead of turning into mud on clay soils. Legions moved quickly along them, and some of those roads are still in use.

On the most difficult routes to overcome, additional layers were used, which included hexagonal stones or paving bricks, reducing dust, and also the sliding of the wheels. The brick allowed the Roman chariots to move very quickly, which provided good communication with the Roman provinces. Rural roads often paved, first of all, in the direction of the city, so that the products were clean. To reduce impacts, the first types of springs and springs were introduced into horse-drawn vehicles, since at first the bridge springs were often not perfectly laid out.

Industrial Revolution

With the beginning of the industrial revolution , steam engines were developed, but for the most part they were too heavy for conventional roads and were used on railways, where the weight was perceived by rails, which also reduced resistance to movement. It should be noted that the usual British rail gauge (1,435 mm) is the same as the Roman chariot gauge, as this has been the usual gauge gauge since then.

Asphalt

During the Industrial Revolution, as well as due to the development of commerce as a result, improved road communication became extremely necessary. Rain along with dirty roads made trade get bogged down in mud. A Scot named McAdam designed the first modern highway . He created an inexpensive material for a roadbed from a combination of soil and stone (also known as “macadam”). McAdam also poured the road a few feet higher than the surrounding area to make the water run off its surface (thereby giving birth to the term freeway (from the English “highway” is a high road)). When its composition was covered with tar (from the English “tar” - resin, tar), they began to call it “tarmacadam”, or simply “tarmac” - asphalt .

Pneumatic tires

When horse - drawn carriages were replaced by cars and trucks, and speeds increased, the need for smoother roads and smaller vertical vibrations became more apparent, and as a result, pneumatic tires were developed to reduce the obviously excessive stiffness.

Toll roads

With the development, mass production, and the all-encompassing popularity of automobiles, roads with greater throughput have become necessary. Restricted freeways appeared in the 1920s . Their distinguishing features were dual carriageways with access points restricting (but not always) mixing different classes of cars. Their dual carriageways passed a large number of cars, and the absence of the need for traffic lights, along with small inclines and smooth turns, made it possible to achieve higher speeds. Cyclists also soon called for good roads.

The first roads with limited access were Parkovye (from amer. "Parkways"). They were called that because of their often “park-like” landscape, and in the New York Metropolitan area, they connected the local park system. In the 1930s, German Autobahns appeared (from it. Autobahn - automobile road, freeway), which raised the standards of road design and their speed. In the same decade, the United States began building toll roads with similar stringent requirements.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s , after World War II , which interrupted the development of highways, the United States continued the construction of toll roads. They had to meet even more stringent requirements and standards. One of the roads, the New York State Highway (from the American “NY State Thruway”), met these requirements and became the prototype for the American Interstate Road System (from the American - “American Interstate Road System”). This system uses lanes with a width of 12 feet (3.65 meters), wide dividing strips, slopes with a maximum of 4% and full access control to them. The system was launched in the mid-1950s and created a network of continental scales to connect each settlement with a population of 50,000 or more.

• Trackless transport // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
• The article “What Kiev invention predetermined the development of urban transport for several decades” on the website “www.autoconsulting.com.ua” (neopr.) . Date of treatment September 11, 2015. Archived on September 14, 2015.