
In 1854, the American writer Henry David Thoreau wrote the classic work “Walden”, recounting his experience of life in the woods and extolling the advantages of simple and self-sufficient life. Right at the beginning of the book, the author comments that, if someone wants to travel 48 km to visit the countryside, it would be faster to walk than to opt for a locomotive.
This was not because the speed of the train when moving was slower, but because Thoreau proposed that travel time is considered to be that spent on work to pay the costs of the ticket, which, at the time, would be equivalent to almost a day's salary.
