Something else that’s often ignored in these scenarios is that gasoline is not shelf stable for very long. Without refineries or biofuel, most gasoline would degrade within a year from what I understand.

Most realistic would be horses, bikes, maybe biodiesel converted cars or motorbikes and a biodiesel creation setup. I could also see electric vehicles with solar or constructed wind/water wheel power to charge batteries. But batteries of course degrade as well so that isn’t a long term solution unless you can make and repair batteries. Which is a stretch.

Probably bikes and walking honestly.

I play cdda. The map generation can be wonky but there can issue of roads overrun by either zombies or abandoned cars. Cars become super useless when you have 1 mile stretch of road you can use untill you clear out the roads.

Also detail that if you run over zombies the bones(or even random crap in pockets) can pierce the tires or wear down the tires.

Horses can be useful but I never use them in game because bikes are more accessible. You could use horses to attract zombies (off roads or into ditches).

The most useful thing horse would be the manure since cars and bikes can’t produce that.

Sorry it didn’t answer your question but wanted to share that

Side note. People can make biodiseal from fast food oil for cheap and animal fat, I highly doubt farmers or truck drivers could get the quantities need

The Road by Cormac Mccarthy. It’s a book and a movie but I have never seen the film. Basically the main character moves his belongings around in a shopping cart with a mirror mounted to it to watch the road behind him. He also keeps a backpack on at all times with essential supplies incase he has to abandon the cart and run.

I thought Station Eleven was pretty good about it, small vehicles / motorcycles for a while, then bicycles and horses + wagons, plus a lot of walking. That was a wildly different scenario though (99.9% of the population poofed in a few day period), so there were a ton of abandoned resources for any survivors.

One bit of fiction that gets it pretty right is (brace yourself): The Onion. This video is a masterclass of world building and rammed solid with blink-and-youll-miss-it gags and sleights, including mentioning arduous, multi-day journeys by barge. It’s like a cross between the Postman, Mad Max and, well, The Onion.

I think you’d see more bikes. A lot less upkeep than a horse, you can find them relatively easy, and they can sit in a garage for months or years and only need some minor maintenance to get going again.

Edit: I can’t think of any books I’ve read recently that depicts primarily bike based transportation though. Probably because it doesn’t look super cool lol

the most realistic thing I can think of is greasel conversion of diesels but I have never seen it done in a show. Then you just need farming of vegetable oil. Batteries though become problamatic after 10 years.

Worst, Honorable Mention: I didn’t watch past Season 2, but I understand the Walking Dead was product-placing current model cars every new season.

Anecdotally, diesels can sit for a long time and be just fine. I suspect there’s something a mechanic could do with an abandoned gasoline car as well. The limiting factor, if we’re talking full collapse of civilisation, is refined petroleum.

During the world wars, there were people converting IC engines to run off of wood gasifiers. For that, you either need the skills and tools to reprogram engine timings, or a carburator, though. Diesels can run on vegetable oil, and EVs can run off a solar panel, or, if still running, a wind turbine.

Horses aren’t cheap or free to run, either. No matter what, there will be less vehicles, the ones that do exists will tend to be heavily loaded to save money (like you sometimes see in the third world) and they’re going to take longer to get where they’re going.

I wanna see people wait months with a tiny solar panel trying to charge their ev so they can drive a couple of miles