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Toward green mobility: the evolution of transport

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Jesse H. Ausubel ,
Cesare Marchetti  and
Perrin S. Meyer
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Abstract

We envisage a transport system producing zero emissions and sparing the surface landscape, while people, on average, range hundreds of kilometres daily. We believe this prospect of ‘green mobility’ is consistent in general principles with historical evolution. We lay out these general principles, extracted from widespread observations of human behaviour over long periods, and use them to explain past transport and to project the next 50 to 100 years. Our picture emphasizes the slow penetration of new technologies of transport, adding speed in the course of substituting for the old ones in terms of time allocation. We discuss in increasing detail railroads, cars, aeroplanes, and magnetically levitated trains (maglevs).

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 137 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 1998

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