Transportation Facts

New Jersey and Oregon are the only two states where it is illegal to pump your own gas.

It was once against the law to slam your car door in a city in Switzerland!

The time interval from first sighting of the iceberg that sank the Titanic to impact was a little over 30 seconds.

The 426 escalators in the London Underground cover a distance every week equivalent to traveling around the world more than twice.

There are only 14 blimps in the world.

The word taxi is spelled the same in English, German, French, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese.

In Bangladesh, $5 will buy a beer or a first-class train ticket for a cross-country trip.

There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses!

There are no rental cars in Bermuda.

In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes!

Henry Ford produced the model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.

In Haiti, only about 1 out of every 260 people owns a car—one of the lowest car ownership rates in the world.

Until 1976, taxi cabs in Australia were required to carry a bale of hay in the trunk.

In the U.S., about 17% of what you pay at the gas pump goes to taxes, combining federal and state fuel taxes that fund road infrastructure.

The station master and operating officer at the Kishi Station, Japan, is a cat!

Scientists in China have developed maglev train technology that could eventually reach speeds of 620 mph (1,000 km/h), more than twice as fast as current high-speed rail.

On very long, boring roads in Australia, they put up trivia signs to keep drivers alert. One sign asks a question, and a few kilometres later another sign gives the answer.

In November 2017, the Tsukuba Express line in Japan issued a formal public apology after a train departed Minami-Nagareyama station 20 seconds ahead of schedule. Not 20 minutes. Twenty seconds. The statement read: "We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience." Not a single passenger had complained.

A woman near Tokyo fell into the gap between the platform and a 32-ton train. 40 commuters stepped off, lined up along the carriage, and pushed it sideways. She was pulled free. Completely uninjured. 8 minutes later, the train was back on schedule. Because of course it was.

Noah Ahmed, 15, stepped off a London train at Peterborough station and had an epileptic seizure that dropped him onto the tracks. His mum hit the alarm and his stepdad reached for him, but strangers, station staff, a nurse, and an off-duty police officer rushed in before the train could move. Noah walked away with only scratches.

Sophia Celentano, 21, flew from Charleston to Newark once a week for her internship because the math was somehow better than renting near the office - and she says the hack saved about $2,000 in 10 weeks.

The U.S. Capitol has run its own private underground subway since March 1909. The original cars were lemon-yellow Studebakers that held eight senators and took just 45 seconds to cover a 760-foot tunnel. It still runs today - and the public cannot get on without a congressional escort.

San Francisco's Powell Street cable car has no reverse gear and no loop to turn around on. So at the end of every run, the crew steps off. They turn the Powell car by hand on a street turntable. The 15,500-pound car swings a half circle to face the other way. Crowds gather at Powell and Market to watch. San Francisco runs the last cable car system in the world still doing this. Every run, still by hand.