Urban planners and electrical engineers will be the architects of future transportation systems that reduce dependence on autos and fossil fuel. The emphasis will be on livable communities with mixed-use zoning and safe pedestrian and bicycle routes. Like the long-standing communities in Europe, local diversity will reduce the need for extensive travel. All alternative (not fossil fuel driven) forms of transportation will be encouraged by design: walking, skating, bicycling, public transit, telecommuting, and light rail.

Early in the last century, American oil and auto companies conspired to buy up and dismantle the existing light rail infrastructure in order to monopolize transportation. We’ve come full circle with the impending demise of the auto–dominated lifestyle. Amazing as it may seem, electric trains were once a popular mode of travel between Portland, Salem, and Eugene. The history, not without a touch of deja vu: salemhistory.net/ and trainweb/salem history.

The Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society maintains a museum of electric trains and trolleys near Brooks: trainweb.org/oerm

We have the benefit of technology sufficiently advanced to breathe new life into old ideas. Americans have never backed down from a technical challenge, and the future will be no different. Some hardware and concepts:

Linear motors will find uses in future public transit. A linear motor can be thought of as a rotational motor unrolled and stretched out for straight motion.

Demand-activated mass transit. Riders call in by phone, creating a dynamic, computer-generated route that solves the inefficiency problem of serving outlying areas with bus service. Buses would use alternative fuels or could be all-electric, eliminating charge time by swapping the battery for a fresh one at the bus depot.

Personal rapid transit with dual mode operation. In this proposal, individual, pod-like cars enclose the riders on a separate right-of-way that is automated for maximum efficiency. Riders enjoy less time waiting, more privacy, and faster travel time. The lightweight vehicles employed would be conducive to quiet, energy efficient propulsion mechanisms.
With dual mode operation, the vehicles would be capable of traveling on ordinary roads, and then connecting to the automated network for extended travel.

In a similar design, known as RUF for Rapid, Urban, and Flexible, personal electric vehicles can be connected into a train that is efficient and non-polluting: cnn.com/RUF/

Bicycles will be rediscovered and reinvented in the coming years. At biketrans.com/, a system that uses a tubular structure of enclosed airflow to maximize the efficiency of cycling is being proposed. For regular cycling, the use of streamlined fairing on a standard frame, with integrated electronics, will bring bicycles up to a new level of sophistication.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Energy Future, Livability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.