The question is two-fold: in terms of form, is it going to be more of a plane, a car, a bus, a train or a bicycle for this matter? In terms of power, what sort of power would it use: renewable energy, fossil fuel, electrical, solar, atomic, or bio power and/or hybrid of these?
For your contribution, my gratitude is profuse!
Transportation systems of the future
1. String theory
Another high-speed rail concept that aims to present an alternative to conventional systems without the astronomical price tag is Anatoly Unitsky's String Transport System. The concept is based on the use of what look like heavy-duty above ground electrical wires, but instead of carrying power, these high-tension wires become the support for carriages.
2. Human-powered mass transport
This human powered monorail system uses bicycle pods suspended from tracks to create a very efficient option for getting from A to B.
Regrading your second part of your question (fuel), I will refer you to attached article:
Transport fuels of the future will require numerous sources; there is no silver bullet. Detailed research in biofuel materials and technologies are required to optimize the resources of all renewable transport systems.
Electrification of all transport is unlikely due to the scale of energy in transport but should be a big part of the solution, as it allows for storage of variable night time electricity.
First generation liquid biofuels do not optimize energy return per unit of land in the form of transport biofuel, will struggle with sustainability issues, and will only ever account for less than 10 % of the energy in transport. Second generation liquid biofuels need a cheap abundant source of lignocellulosic feedstock. EVs are more efficient than hydrogen fuelled vehicles when the hydrogen is sourced from electrolysis. Methane is always cheaper than hydrogen and biomethane has a superior energy balance to first generation liquid biofuels.
http://www.gizmag.com/future-transport/22959/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702111702772
Transportation systems of the future
1. String theory
Another high-speed rail concept that aims to present an alternative to conventional systems without the astronomical price tag is Anatoly Unitsky's String Transport System. The concept is based on the use of what look like heavy-duty above ground electrical wires, but instead of carrying power, these high-tension wires become the support for carriages.
2. Human-powered mass transport
This human powered monorail system uses bicycle pods suspended from tracks to create a very efficient option for getting from A to B.
Regrading your second part of your question (fuel), I will refer you to attached article:
Transport fuels of the future will require numerous sources; there is no silver bullet. Detailed research in biofuel materials and technologies are required to optimize the resources of all renewable transport systems.
Electrification of all transport is unlikely due to the scale of energy in transport but should be a big part of the solution, as it allows for storage of variable night time electricity.
First generation liquid biofuels do not optimize energy return per unit of land in the form of transport biofuel, will struggle with sustainability issues, and will only ever account for less than 10 % of the energy in transport. Second generation liquid biofuels need a cheap abundant source of lignocellulosic feedstock. EVs are more efficient than hydrogen fuelled vehicles when the hydrogen is sourced from electrolysis. Methane is always cheaper than hydrogen and biomethane has a superior energy balance to first generation liquid biofuels.
http://www.gizmag.com/future-transport/22959/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702111702772
Dear Marvan,
my first idea is, it must be a public transport medium like trains or individual vehicles, which are centrally controlled. The power will be electric power from bio production and other renewable sources.
Dear Marwan,
Do you mean how to travel in time? It depends only on the velocity and the time distance. With luck each of us can travel into the next day using our normal life rapidity. Travelling in the next millennium is a bit more complicated.
Time resistant things can survive many thousand years (e.g. pyramids).
Even original and beautiful ideas are able to survive!
Travelling in the future (or past) is the oldest dream of humanity. I am afraid we cannot solve it in this thread, but we should try it!
What about the surviving duration of this thread?
Trains are more energy-efficient than airplanes in the use of fossil fuels. However, we are so close to the hydrogen fuel age in which all sorts of transportation systems will run on hydrogen instead of gasoline or diesel. Combustion of hydrogen gives water which is an environmentally-friendly material coming out of the exhaust. Hydrogen-driven fast trains are envisaged. Once the few problems of hydrogen are solved through applied research, a new era will emerge & it will be called "the hydrogen economy" era.
Dear Behrouz, Hanno, Adndras, Nizar and Roland,
Very fine (and challenging) answers all! What I meant, dear Andras, was: What machine would we use to move things and people in the future. But your answer, Wow, was beyond the scope of my question altogether. I suggest we make a whole new question out of your answer and get back to it later. What do you think?
Dear Marwan,
Science fiction has oriented contemporary science more than once. Those of us who know the television show "Star Trek" have marveled at the transportation system of "beaming up"; that is, a machine decomposes the traveler´s molecular composition at the point of his departure, and recomposes his molecules at the destination. (Of course, machines like their inventors are not infallible, and one could imagine grotesque deformations caused by "beamer" malfunctions.)
Dear Nelson, ok lets beam up. But who pays for the gigantic energy? ;-))
Cost effectiveness is also another important issue that needs to be addressed, dear Hanno and Nelson!
Dear Marwan,
Computers when first invented were not cost-effective. Yet Skype enables virtual travel to remote places to take place today for free. If I wished, I could appear almost life-sized in your or Hanno´s living-room right now as you read this.
Make no mistake: "beaming up" will at first cost much, but continued perfecting of the decomposing apparatus will enable economic "beaming up" eventually to take place.
There might be some options for transportation and commuting in the future:
1) there might be no big changes and, will be just faster and smarter cars and trains, like bullet train in Japan or jumbo-jets etc. all over the world.
2) As dear Dr. Orringer added well, people will might be (and some are now) reluctant to commute more and Tele-commuting may occur; people will do their work and almost everything in their home and home-office, and in case of going out, they will use options in No. 1.
3) As i have read in a book, everyone may have their own rapid and non-stop (not to fight traffic) car moving on a track called Personal transit system in the future.
Considering your second part of the questions, i totally agree with dear Dr. Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan.
Dream, dream, dream, dream,... other energy-cheap expressions of telecommunication
First fold: my dream is bicycle for all. For long distances. train. When inevitable: car and/or plane.
Second fold: bio-renebable or non-polluting sources. When inevitable:others.
Huge economic interests, allowing of course ...
It will be nice if it can be SkyLine (as at the airport Frankfurt am Main).It's a comfortable, fast and interesting way of moving. The vans are Bombardier CX - 100 with pneumatic wheels, which roll on the concrete runways. The way is on the level of roofs.It can roll on the roofs and special overpasses. The regime is automatic.
Dreams are cheap.
N.A.S.A., dominated by practical dreamers, puts Mars Rovers on Mars-- a futuristic mode of transport already belonging to the past-- run with plutonium, a Cold War fuel.
(N.A.S.A. equals National Aeronautical and Space Agency of the U.S.)
A call for radical thinking to reshape the railways.
The radical innovations that he suggests could be seen in the years ahead include composite train body shells, which are stronger, lighter and more flexible than those currently in use; heat exchangers as part of more energy-efficient heating and ventilation systems; faster-opening doors; assured braking; mechatronic bogies; trains guided by computer systems; and driverless trains.
http://www.imeche.org/news/engineering/call-for-radical-thinking-to-reshape-the-railways
From solar-powered to nuclear-powered, here's an interesting read on futuristic transportation possibilities:
http://listverse.com/2014/03/26/10-futuristic-forms-of-transportation-we-could-see-soon/
Rail privatisation has failed to deliver on any of its promises over the last 20 years. Public subsidy has more than doubled, there has been little new private investment, and fares have risen over two times faster than wages, while private train companies extract bigger profits for their shareholders.
Public ownership of the railways has widespread support and would deliver better value for money for taxpayers and passengers.
Can a Labour government deliver the radical reform of our railways that is needed?
http://www.aslef.org.uk/information/141103/can_labour_deliver_radical_rail_reform/
Well, it all depends on the time-scale you adopt. In the long run, the prevailing transport will be solar. In the long run we all shall move from earth-based sources of energy to cosmic ones, and the closest and most evident will be solar energy. The technology will be available to accumulate day-light and store it and distributed even during the nights.
Of course the main transport form will be public. Private transportation will be reduced little by little.
I think the future transport projects looking for the time of transport to reach the goal in short time and in comforable situation with use of different methods of transportation like : The Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) system envisions superconducting maglev trains operating in evacuated tubes at speeds of up to 6,500 km/h (4,039 mph) on international trips - that's New York to Beijing in two hours! The proponents of this system say that ET3 could be 50 times more efficient than electric cars or trains.
Terraspan goes even further than ultra-efficient mass transport with its vision for a network of superconducting tunnels. As well as providing infrastructure for "Terraspan trains," this network would also facilitate zero loss transmission of electricity to our homes.
The SolarBullet project is a campaign aiming to bring high-speed (354 km/h)) trains to Arizona using tracks equipped with solar panel carrying canopies that would provide the 110 megawatts of electricity that the system needs to run.
I think the crowded cities with population require new projects to solve the transport in the future
The increased use of low-energy transportation options such as bus rapid transit and subways could provide cities dwellers with more flexible, cheaper, and less polluting options.
The future is going to exponentially different from today. may be each one of us would have TRAVEL SUITE to use. Like those in comics nowadays, So aerial travel will be clustered with Routes, Heights, and Timings have to be monitored meticulously.
the form of transport will be used to move people and things in the future might depends on solar energy and nuclear energy.
Of course it must be mass transport with focused on renewable energy. Need not to be in panic time will come with solution. Thanks
Dear Marwan,
I thought you were looking for a very imaginary opportunity and pseudo-real aim of your question was the travelling in the time. All of us are time travellers during our life but we have still problems with the time distance. Regarding common transportation possibilities, there are so called traffic or transportation engineers. This is a truly technical and energetic question. As to local transportation I am for the transportation means using green energy: solar or by solar energy produced electricity. Considering the waste of energy by personnel or family cars there is a need for cheap, rapid and frequent mass transportation means like trains. For very short distance (in cities and in province) the best way is the bicycle. It is really energy saving even we can make exercises as well.
First of all, we need to define future; is it 30 years from today or it is next year. In the short run, things are likely to be the same. In the long run (say 20 years from now), a much larger number of people would be using planes than now; for speed is becoming important for everything including doing business. So people need to move faster. But since the cost of moving goods through air is much higher, plane may not be the leading mode for this. More use of rail and road would continue for moving goods. So far as fuel is concerned, we can definitely expect new sources of energy to be used for running vehicles and planes.
My opinion is no different from Dear Hanno. I endorse that future will be safer if mass transit or mass transportation, (group travel technologies such as buses and trains) is use used. It will not only drastically reduce energy consumption, but air quality in general and urban air quality in particular will improve.
As for as second part is concerned, it is quite likely solar cells or hydrogen (least or not polluting) will be alternative future fuel.
Dear Sarwan, Andras, Debi and Mohammad,
Very intriguing ideas indeed! To dear Andras I say: we do need to look for an imaginary opportunity and pseudo-real aim, that of travelling in the time (past and present), as we still have problems with the distance time. Why don't you follow up on this question, dear Andras. I shall be the first one to answer and up-vote it!
It´s not so easy to make up once mind to this question. The problem is so complicated and depends on the local circumstances. So A´s proposal could be totally wrong in situation B.
I´m sure we soon get proposals and ideas from your friends Sarwan, András, Debi and Mohammad, when they found their mind.
To travel into past is scientifically proved false. As my dear friend Louis says present is ours moment (phenomenologists generally have difficulty with past and future in the philosophy of time) . Therefore, we can shall discuss present in terms of problems created by existing modes of transportation and fuel used in them. recently, in a science magazine I have read that air pollution is the greatest danger than climate change. Therefore, it is better to tackle problems now, instead of telling fairytale of future.
Dear Mohammad,
From a philosophical stand point, time present is time past and time past is time future!
For on-road purposes, bicycle and tricycle (without fuel) are best for short distances, whereas, for long distances the modern grade speed cars are good as the pollution gets lowered down by most of these. In case of aquatic media, the human boat and submarines are good. Basically, those vehicles which do less or no damage to the environment are always proved to be safe for us all. Moreover, still I think newest technology will play a role in near future in curtailing the time of transport although posing less threat to surroundings. We are all awaiting for the day to come.
Dear András,
The term 'pseudo-real aim' is time dependent and follows Einstein's Theory. Looking back in pre- Copernicus/ Galileo/ Right Brothers/ James Watt/ Marconi/ Graham Bell/ Newton/ Edison/ Dalton/ Einstein/ Curie ... ... (just a few to name) eras, the respective aspirations/ contributions made by these many celebrity researchers and the corresponding subsequent developments would all have sounded 'pseudo-real aims'. Today we are reaping the fruits of all their imaginary aims - The Inventions.
Galileo, even on the face of a death-sentence (even with an option to roll back), would prefer maintaining (but for his family members/ well-wishers) -'the Earth moves' and even after rolling back, murmured 'NEVERTHELESS IT (THE EARTH ) MOVES'.
I feel, (under-)rating similar (or whatever) aspirations of budding/ seasoned/... researchers, even in the backdrop of our glorious scientific history (a glimpse referred above), at least by our own researcher community, would amount to be a great dishonour to our revered ancestors. A researcher must remember that aspirations/ imaginations (even whims) are the very foundation of research. Achieving a real (existing) aim is a discovery. Achieving an imaginary (pseudo-real/ non-existent/ fantastic/ whimsical/ fictitious/ foolish-until-proven/ fairy-tale) aim is an invention. Both the discovery as well as the invention are for the betterment of the World. A researcher must be allowed a freedom to decide whether to discover or to 'invent' (with all the enshrined meanings of the word).
Reviewing the literature, we have witnessed the realization of a large number of such imaginary/ pseudo-real/ unbelievable fairy-tales in the form of real appliances/ happenings as radio/ television/ mobile/ electricity/ entire world on the desktop, laptop, palmtop/ bicycle/ steam engine/ automobiles/ rail/ mono rail/ hover-craft/ air crafts/ travelling in space/ reaching Venus, Moon, Mars... and so on. Had it not been for the mad devotion/ conviction of the dedicated researchers, we could only (at most) fantasize today's world.
Having said all this, I propose below a few of my imaginations (mad/ whimsical/ foolish-until-realized) in the context of the present question:
Realization of any/both of these ideas could reduce the increasing traffic/ risk of accidents on the ground as well as the road maintenance costs.
If the readers/ commenters spare me of the scare of being rated a fairytale author, I may perhaps dare adding a few more such whims which some day might turn into realities.
teletransportation - it's already been done (on a quantum level)
If people cannot travel easily within a city they may miss opportunities to access employment, education, health, cultural and recreation facilities, or they may simply find it difficult to meet each other socially. Their choices may be restricted, they may waste time, and they may suffer frustration and stress in travelling. Employers in cities depend on effective transport for their workforce, their supply chains and their customers. The ease with which goods can be transported between suppliers, to retail centres and to homes affects both their price to customers and often the financial success of manufacturing and retail businesses. When the business community are asked how cities could be improved, transport links are their highest concern:
- Reduce house prices
- Cleanliness of streets
- Pollution
- Supply of qualified workers
- Supply of office space
- Parking within the town
- Traffic circulation around city
- Transport links with other cities
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20091204001009/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/regional/policy/urbantransport/pdf/researchreport.pdf
Dear Professor Marwan M. Obeidat,
Solar air taxi.
High speed trains / goods trains.
Local trucks.
Dear Marwan,
I agree with Kevin , teletransportation can be one of the possibilities.
For short and medium distances, human-powered Shweeb looks promising for short-term future.
In 2010 Google Inc. concluded Project 10^100 - a call for ideas for change. People from around the world submitted over 150,000 ideas that they wanted to bring to life. "Drive innovation in public transportation" was one of the five winning ideas.
The winner of the “Drive Innovation in Public Transport” category is Shweeb, a New Zealand company behind a new monorail and recumbent cycle technology — also called “the Shweeb” that allows people to travel in pedal-powered pods along an elevated cycle track.
http://www.solidsmack.com/design/shweeb-first-human-powered-mono-rail-inventor/
http://www.google.com/campaigns/project10tothe100/
http://shweeb.com/
http://www.shweeb.co.nz/Gallery/Gallery5Frame.aspx?TE=1&IDGallery=15893
It seems the idea that I proposed earlier in response to this question is now crystallizing. (see this link):
https://www.uber.com/elevate.pdf
[Fast-Forwarding to a Future of On-Demand Urban Air Transportation]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An excerpt from my earlier answer:
Having said all this, I propose below a few of my imaginations (mad/ whimsical/ foolish-until-realized) in the context of the present question:
If the (atmospheric) air can be densified suitably (overcoming the implications), people can swim in air (atmosphere), at least to short distances, just as they do in water.
Improvising the bicycles/ scooters/ cars (and possibly other similar vehicles) so as to fly overhead (without the need for the fly overs).
Realization of any/both of these ideas could reduce the increasing traffic/ risk of accidents on the ground as well as the road maintenance costs.
If the readers/ commenters spare me of the scare of being rated a fairytale author, I may perhaps dare adding a few more such whims which some day might turn into realities.
Dear Marwan,
The solutions for the future transport must be based on public transport (PT) modes of travel, regardless of whether they are metro/subway, bus, light rail, tram, ferry, para-transit, Uber or Lyft service, an ordinary taxi, personal-rapid transit or any other PT-based future modes with renewable energy.
Best, Tao
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Physical Sciences
- Energy
- Energy-Generating Resources
- Renewable Energy