For hundreds of years people have been compelled to find a better way to travel. It would be impossible to credit just one person for the development of the automobile. The word “automobile” literally means self-moving. People wanted a vehicle that could take them to new places. For many years people worked and lived within miles of where they were born and where they eventually died. Before the automobile, most people traveled on land from one place to another by foot, train, bicycle, or horse and carriage. Within a few years of the turn of the 20th century, the automobile would change society forever. Today, there are millions of vehicles on the roadways.