Transportation idioms

Idioms related to transportation.

Automobiles

In the driver's seat

Aviation

Fly by the seat of one's pants

Boating

Fresh off the boat

Meant to be newly arrived somewhere and therefore inexperienced.

In the same boat

If two or more people were in the same boat, the same situation applied to them.

When Harry Kim and Tom Paris were on a class Y planet and both their environmental suits leaked, Paris commented, "We're in the same boat, buddy!". (VOY: "Demon")

Smooth sailing

If something was smooth sailing, it was going well.

Sisko once claimed that after passing through the Denorios belt, the rest of the trip would be smooth sailing. (DS9: "Explorers")

Dax once used this expression to refer to passing through a temporal anomaly. When she was proven wrong, Sisko mockingly echoed her line. (DS9: "Children of Time")

Without a paddle

Meant to be without the ability to help oneself.

In 2375, after learning that Nog had borrowed a runabout and left Deep Space 9, Miles O'Brien complained that the Ferengi had left him "adrift, mid-river (the Great Material Continuum, that is) without a paddle". (DS9: "Treachery, Faith and the Great River")

Horseback

Hell for leather

Roads

Down the road

(DS9: "The Circle")

(VOY: "Phage")

(VOY: "Scorpion"

Get the show on the road

One for the road

"Road to recovery"

Vehicles

Bucket of bolts

Rust bucket