by Editor  Miro Susta

The 3rd part of my transportation quadrilogy is devoted to roads and road vehicles.

Travelling on road between destinations, and reaching the destination is a major part of the journey, but in photographic terms the road and the vehicle we are travelling on is unfortunately often neglected in favour of the final destination side.

But the road and the vehicle offers a great opportunity for an excellent photo story, to stand alone or to be part the journey.

Such travel photographs can be broken down into several groups; the road itself, the vehicle, life and cargo on board, and some others for example abandoned vehicles, passing scenes captured from the vehicle, etc.

In this photo article I have included/selected, topic related, photographs from 1x photo gallery as well as few of my images. Many thanks to all contributing authors for excellent photo work.

I have split the photographs into four following groups.

THE ROAD

The roads mainly serve as connections between starting point and the point of destination on the journey. Don’t forget that the road photographs captured during today’s journey may become tomorrow’s cherished photo treasures.
 

“Trollstigen” by JiÅ™i Paur

“The Clover Interchanger (Semanggi)” by Abel Brata

“go work!” by fproject – Przemyslaw Kruk

“City highway” by Miro Susta

“Ginza” by Shigehiro Ono

THE VEHICLE

Vehicles, such as cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, animal drawn carts, rickshaws and some other related transportation vehicles carry people and/or cargo on roads, streets and also off-roads.

When capturing vehicle photographs during on road journey, try to be professional in your photo work but don’t overdo it.

You may talk to the owners of the vehicles you think look very interesting, under some circumstances you should (or you must) ask them if they’d like to have their vehicle photographed.

“Ice Cream” by Miloš Nejezchleb

“Back to the future” by Yvette Depaepe

“Steep climb” by Miro Susta

“Countryside life” by Julien Oncete

“Horse Power” by Sebastian Kisworo

“Old way” by Miro Susta

“Leaving home” by Marius Cinteză

“Bullock Cart” by Miro Susta

“No.39” by ADIREK M

“o T o” by Darko Pavlovic

“Malecon” by Andreas Bauer

“Dissection” by Hayk Shalunts

“White car” by Jef Van den Houte

LIFE & CARGO ON BOARD

Almost every vehicle provides opportunities for good photograph at every stage - getting into the vehicle, preparing to drive, actually driving and, finally, getting out as well as cargo loading, carrying and unloading. Keep your eyes open and take the opportunity for best picture.

“Taxidriver” by Andreas Bauer

“Ghost Rider” by Aleksander Smid

“Heavy cargo” by Miro Susta

“Time to leave” by Fernand Hick

“Hurry up” by Miro Susta

ABANDONED VEHICLES

Photographers have always been inspired by deserted cars that are rotting away. Such cars or their rusty remaining’s can be found at many car junk- & graveyards as well sometimes hidden deep in the woods. It is up to your best fantasy and skill.

“Rusty Beatle” by Knut Saglien

“Car cemetery in the woods” by Steen Lund Hansen

“Beached Bus” by Yvette Depaepe

“Hod on!” by Christine von Diepenbroek

Following some interesting facts about roads & road vehicles

* The current global stock of roads totals about 36,353,000 km, this is ~5.6 meters of road per person (m p.p.).

* USA with the worldwide the longest road network (6,857,000 km, ~20 m p.p.) accounts for about 18% of the world's stock of roads; it is followed by India (4,700,000 km, ~3.7 m p.p.) and China (4,100,000 km, ~3 m p.p.)

* Tuvalu Island in the Pacific Ocean has worldwide the shortest road network, only 8 km, this is ~0.7 meters of road per person (m p.p.).  Ranked 223 of 223 countries.

* Currently the highest motor able road at an altitude of ~5,500 meters above sea level is located in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir connecting Chisumle and Demchok villages, situated about 250 km south-east from town of Leh.

* Dead Sea Highways 90 and 65 situated around Dead Sea, located in Israel and Jordan, are at an altitude of 391 meters below sea level the lowest roads in the world.

* First car powered by one cylinder, two stroke internal combustion 0.56 kW (0.75 hp) engine (fuelled with petrol) reaching a top speed of 16 km/hour was built in Germany by Karl Benz in year 1885.

* Mercedes-Benz, founded in 1883, was the first car producing company. Mercedes sold the first car in 1886.

* French, steam engine powered, De Dion et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos car, built in 1884, holds currently the title of the oldest car in the world that is still running. At its peak, the car reached top speed of 60 km/hour (37 miles/hour).

* The world's strongest truck is the BelAZ-75710 dumper truck produced by BelAZ Company in Belarus. It can shift more than 450 tonnes at a time. It is powered by four 1,200 kW (1,610 hp) electric engines, designed by Siemens.

* Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita produced by Swedish car manufacturer Koenigseeg is with the top speed of 458 km/hour (285 miles/hour) the World's fastest road car. It is powered by 691 kW (940 hp) 5,000 cm³ (5 liters), 8 cylinder internal combustion, petrol engine.

* With 540 km (335 miles) the Tesla Model S is currently the longest range Electric Car.

* Volvo Buses recently launched the world's largest bus chassis, Gran Artic 300. This bus was developed especially for Brazil Road Transport Systems to satisfy high demand transportation in the cities. It is 30 meters long and can carry up to 300 passengers.

* Fastest ever built motorbike is the Dodge Tomahawk with maximumspeed of 676 km/hour (420 miles/hour). It is equipped with 373 kW (500 hp), 8,300 cm³ (8.3 liters) engine; only 9 units have been sold.

* With top speed of 400 km/hour (249 miles/hour) Kawasaki Ninja H2R is the fastest, in serialproduction, superbike till date. It is equipped with 224 kW (300 hp) 998 cm³(1 liter) engine.

* Carts pulled by animals are widely used for rural transport; there may be about 40 million in operation worldwide, the majority in South-Asia.

* Israel is the first country in the world which has banned all horse- and donkey carts and carriages from nation’s roads and streets (since 2014).

* It is estimated that more than a billion bicycles are present in the world (about one bicycle for 7-8 people). With 450 million, China accounts for nearly half that amount.

* Netherland a country with population of 16.6 million has 16.5 million bicycles (99.4%).

“Follow the path” by Gunarto Song

The roads and road vehicles make us travel, also make us travel photographers.

Our camera is an indispensable aid to our road journey. And for many travellers with little time on their hands, unrestrained by the demand of companions or the press of deadline, taking pictures can be hugely rewarding experience. Don’t miss it during your next road journey.

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