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Table of Contents
Points of Divergence : Transport and vehicles
This page deals primarily with PODs concerning vehicles in civilian use, land-based or water-based, unmotorised and motorised. For military vehicles and both civilian and military aircraft, please see their separate POD pages. For draught animals and beasts of burden, please see the agriculture PODs page.
Unmotorized land vehicles
What if the wheel had never been invented ? (1)
What if the wheel had never been invented ? (2)
How would the wheel change the Americas ?
Reindeer/caribou sled vs dog sled ?
WI: The Wheel brought to the Philippines before the Era of Exploration
Plausibility check: Earliest possible invention and mass production of bicycles ? (1)
Plausibility check: Earliest possible invention and mass production of bicycles ? (2)
WI: The bicycle developed earlier (1)
WI: The bicycle developed earlier (2)
WI: The bicycle developed earlier (3)
WI: The bicycle developed earlier (4)
WI: The bicycle developed earlier (5)
WI: The bicycle developed earlier (6)
Future bicyle developments (1)
Future bicyle developments (2)
ASB WI: 2012 Bicycles ISOT to 1880
ASB WI: The poorest people in the world each get their own cheap bicycle
ASB WI: ASB supplies bicycles to the Roman Empire
ASBs permanently replace all cars with bicycles
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
Motor vehicles
WI: Internal combustion engine never invented, but electric and steam engines still exist
WI: Steam cars in the 18th century
WI: Ethanol vehicles the norm from early on ?
Alternate automotive layout developments ?
Highway system in a larger USA
Challenge: The privately-owned car remains seen as a "Rich men's toy"
Is it possible for electric cars to become the standard ?
WI the Ford Model T was electric ?
Alternate Motor Car company names
More Successful Auto Companies
Challenge: Greater trolley coach (trolleybus) use today in North America
Plausibility check: Triple Decker Buses ?
Challenge: A Canadian car company (with a POD between 1900 and 1960)
North American aerospace/defense companies making cars ?
Could Tucker Automotive succeed ?
ATL vehicle-manufacturing industries in a non-Sovietized Hungary
Škoda in an independent Czechoslovakia or Czech Republic post-WWII
Challenge: East Block communist cars that are "good"
Challenge: Motor vehicles powered by turbine engines more widespread (since the 1950s/1960s)
Alternate silhouette for cars in 1950s USA
Challenge: Successful Chevrolet Corvair
Challenge: Studebaker Survives the 1960s
General Motors alternate history
DBWI: Gasoline cars still used ?
WI the MGA Twin Cam engine was successful ?
WI Ford and Chrysler had merged in the 1980s ?
Bain Capital buys Ford in 1987
SAAB Automobile AB not sold to General Motors in the 1980s - Outcomes ?
A "What-If" British Motor Industry Scenario
Better Ford management of passenger car and minivan production in the 1990s
Challenge: Oldsmobile survives
Discussion on possible future developments of motor vehicles
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
For motorsport PODs, please see Points of Divergence : Motorsports.
Trains and railways
Roman semaphore lines and horse-drawn rail cars
Plausibility check: Trains with Stirling Engines ?
Challenge: Ride the rails to New York to Buenos Aries
WI Brunel's 7ft gauge continues to coexist with standard gauge ?
Challenge: Adopt the Broad Gauge in the US
Challenge: Cape to Cairo Railway
Bagdadbahn finished in November 1913
Škoda in an independent Czechoslovakia or Czech Republic post-WWII
More surviving streetcar lines ?
Challenge: Prevent the Great American Streetcar Scandal
WI the Sydney tram network wasn't dismantled ?
Challenge: Metro Expo Line in LA underground
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
Ships and other vessels
Pre-Columbian New World naval powers: When, who, where, and how ?
Challenge: A seafaring culture like the Vikings in southern Chile
Challenge: Pre-Columbian discovery of the Old World by the Native Americans
If steam power didn't take off, how extensive would the US' canal network be ?
WI: Earlier Discovery of the North-West Passage
Historical ramifications if the RMS Titanic hadn't sunk ?
Titanic rescued by the RMS Californian
DBWI: The RMS Titanic Disaster, April 14th 1912
Fourth Olympic class without WWI ?
RMS Olympic sunk between 22 November 1916 and 11 November 1918
The British develop the Intermodel Container between the world wars
Challenge: Pick a ship scrapped in OTL and preserve it as a museum ship
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
Aerial transport and delivery
Please see Points of Divergence : Aircraft.
See Also
Points of Divergence : Steam Engine
Points of Divergence : Engines
Points of Divergence : Economy and Trade
Points of Divergence : Agriculture
Useful Resources on Transportation Technology and Infrastructure