Pre-Industrial Transportation?

[ellenkushner]

Assured one of my anxious Hollins students that there are web pages that briefly & clearly tell historical/fantasy writers how long it takes to get places on horseback or by carriage (and how it all works).

Am I right?

Comments

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

People who were traveling fast by horse set up relays -- the record from London to Edinburgh when Queen Elizabeth died wasn't broken until the 19th Century, done by Sir Robert Carey in sixty hours. Pony Express crossed the US from St. Louis to San Francisco in something like three days (record for bicycles is a bit over 5 days from what I could find in a quick Google). Horse endurance rides are up to 100 miles in a day, generally with riders on Arabians.

Judging on these stats, I'd say that translating from bicycle speeds to horse speeds would be a good approximation. A fit bicyclist can do 100 miles a day. Top flat speeds for horse and bicyclist are also probably comparable.

Car -- horse: bad analogy. Bicycle -- horse: good analogy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_riding