Traveling along Interstate 15 through Nevada reminds me of when I was a kid in the ’70’s, and my family would travel from California to Utah each summer to visit my grandma, in paneled station wagons like the one shown above. This time in 2009, I was thinking about how little transportation has changed.

With all the remarkable advances over the last 40 years in technology, bioscience, and manufacturing, we still travel across the country on asphalt roads and rubber tires, at about the same speed, in six or eight-cylinder cars that are about the same size.

We still stop along the way at fillin’ stations for fossil fuel and treats. We still fill the soda cups with a little extra ice to crunch on while passing the time. Even gas pumps look about the same. Kids still ask “are we there yet?” And, the trip still takes almost exactly the same amount of time.

The only real differences have to do with technology—kids watching YouTube videos on their iPhones. Oh...  And one more difference...  We wear seatbelts.