The Amish buggies work by Kevin Verne, Amélie Viard and Aurélie Wattrelos edited by Olivier Glain

In Illinois, some of the people still travel by one- horsepower. They are called "the plain people" or Amish. You can't miss the Amish and their four- wheeled buggies. You can't miss the Amish and their four- wheeled buggies. You will see them ride around town to places such as grocery stores, banks, doctor's offices, or to the local pharmacy.

The average speed of a Amish horse-drawn buggy is between 5 and 10 miles and hour. The Amish don’t hesitate to travel many miles to buy the perfect horse. Many Amish families have more than one buggy. They have a smaller buggy that they use to run errands and larger buggies for the whole family. They also have open and closed buggies to use according to the seasons. Buggies are usually black.

Every Amish community has its own style of buggy. Over the years, many improvements have been made to the Amish buggy to improve safety. For example, in the Illinois central Amish community, people now use things like LED lights (luminous tape that is more visible by car headlight) to ride at night, and luminous triangles on the back of their buggies to warn passing cars.

There are now road signs for the Amish (it's so easy to get distracted and not see a little pony cart on the side of the road!)

As Church services are held in homes, the Amish also use bench wagons. A bench wagon carries benches from house to house.

Over the years some Amish have come to accept some degree of modernization but they believe that owning a car would create inequalities and would be a sign of wealth and power. So, they have decided to forbid ownership of motorized vehicles. However, as the Amish have family members spread out throughout the country, they consider it is acceptable to hire drivers to go and visit them. They just could not travel the same distances by horse and buggy.