Article : transport continued
owning them has spawned entirely new industries
connecting those that have with those that want
and in doing so is slowly taking some of the need
away from transporting multiple goods along our
transportation corridors.
Project and task-work is re-framing the 9-5
commute and as we increasingly change where and
when we work the traditional road congestion and
traffic will reshape itself.
Transport’s where, when, how, why and what are all
changing, but of course we will continue to travel and
in fact travel more than we ever have before, but for
very different reasons and in very different ways.
But my concern is that every decision being made
about our roads, highways, parking, airports, train
stations, ports and transport routes are being made on
yesterday’s usage, transposed onto tomorrow’s world.
If we have apps like Waze successfully using the
collected wisdom of road users to redirect each car in
real-time. If we have people commuting to work and
elsewhere at different hours instead of within tight
time-frames. If autonomous cars can pick and choose
directions according to road conditions and personal
preferences. If we have 3D printers printing requisites
on demand and in-situ then our roads and transport
decisions need to factor in these and so many other
new horizon influences.
We must start to think about, set cultural rules around
and legislate for autonomous cars, work though
licencing and insurance needs. We need to factor in
changing traffic flows and mass transportation needs,
there are lots we need to do before we go to our
default position of widening and expanding highways
for traffic conditions that may not be present when
the roads comes to reality.
We must be brave and truly factor in tomorrow’s
needs and technologies before we merely default to
replicating yesterdays solutions and infrastructure
over and over again.
And because a futurist conversation is never
complete without some science fiction transportation
possibilities, here’s 3 of my favourites:
Gravity train which could travel through the core
of the earth and take you from anywhere to anywhere
on the planet in 42 minutes and 12 seconds,
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop that will place you into
a vacuum sealed tube and woosh you 6,500
kilometres in 45 minutes at the speed of 1,223
kilometres per hour.
The space elevator a long desired piece of kit,
that now has Obayashi Corp in Japan saying it may
be possible from 2030 onwards as carbon fibre
improves enough to allow them to set a thin vertical
track that will allow us to hop in an elevator and
spend 7 days travelling up to the nearest space
station or space hotel.
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