Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first wheeled vehicle ever depicted in human history was a simple pot from Bronocice, Poland, etched with an image of a four-wheeled vehicle dating back to the 4th millennium BCE. This ancient artifact reveals that the desire to move goods and people faster than walking speed has been a driving force of human development since the dawn of recorded time.
The steam engine changed land transport independence from human or animal muscles during the 19th century. In the 1800s, the steam engine was applied to rail transport, creating a system where trains could haul massive loads of coal, iron, and passengers across continents at speeds previously unimaginable.
As of 2015, there were 950 million passenger cars worldwide, with projections suggesting a total of 2.5 billion by 2050. The planning of cities around the automobile has led to urban sprawl, where pavement devoted to streets and parking can easily exceed 20 percent of total land use.
In 1903, the Wright brothers demonstrated the first successful controllable airplane, marking the beginning of a new era in human mobility. As of the 28th of April 2009, the World Health Organization estimated that up to 500,000 people were on planes at any time.
As of the early 21st century, 55 percent of the world's population lived in cities, and this number is expected to rise to 68 percent by 2050. The transportation sector accounts for more than one-third of CO2 emissions globally in the early 2020s, with road transport being the largest contributor to global warming.
The United Nations first formally recognized the role of transport in sustainable development in the 1992 United Nations Earth summit. Global leaders have since recognized that transport and mobility are central to achieving the sustainability targets.