What modes of transport will we be using in years to come? Donal Byrnetakes a look
Some 20 years ago, many of us would have scoffed at the idea of the Smart car, comfortable as we were with reasonable journey times in our Ford Escorts and VW Golfs, and the relative space and comfort they afforded.
Even today, there are those who think a small shell, with a tiny engine and four wheels is a passing novelty.
However, congestion and resultant immobility, pollution and the ever looming likelihood of city traffic bans have brought us to the stage where the Smart is coming into its own - even those within the Daimler Chrysler empire who derided the Smart concept are probably realising that it may well be its saviour in terms of balancing out the company's hugely problematic emissions obligations.
In fact, the state of our towns and cities has brought the need for futuristic innovation into focus more quickly than we might have thought.
Our future transport needs have always been the preserve of boffins and those in car companies who are paid to think ahead, but often without any clear parameters. They have pondered the same questions for a long time but are now doing so with a new urgency.
Is the car, in whatever shape or form, a viable option for the future? Will we have to rely on highly sophisticated forms of mass transport? Will it be public or private? Will cars be removed from cities entirely? The answer to these questions is probably yes.
The issue is how they can be resolved in what is likely to be an accelerated period of development.
What we do know for certain at this point is that: vehicles of the future will not be powered by the burning of fossil fuels; cars will be controlled and monitored much more than they are now; the materials used in their construction will be lightweight but strong; vehicles will be smaller and more clever in their use of space; and they will bear more of a resemblance to pods than the hatchbacks and saloons we know today.
In terms of public transport, we will see highly efficient light rail projects. Buses and other bigger vehicles will be silent, non-polluting, and may not even have wheels; instead using electronically-guided tracking. There will be a huge emphasis on building more efficient public transport systems and people will be forced into using them.
One British government study posited the idea of individuals having their own carbon credits, which they will pay for, and has a fictional example of a businesswoman trying to use influence and contacts to be allowed to make a trip across Britain in her car.
A recent seminar involving some of America's top experts in planning and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology agreed that cars in the future will have to become more "like living things than living rooms on wheels".
A group of architects and engineers there have begun with the premise that our cities have become automobile cities.
"Cars are essential for getting around; they mediate the experience of the city; they occupy huge amounts of real estate; they make a lot of noise and clutter the streets. Yet architects and planners mostly take them as a given, and are content to design streets and public spaces around whatever the world's automobile manufacturers happen to provide".
This state of affairs became their challenge and they have produced blueprints for robot cars that have wider applications for other forms of transport.
First to go is the engine and drive train and these are replaced by electric motors inside wheel robots. Gone too are things like steering wheels, gearboxes, dashboards and all the other things that clutter the current car.
Interactive steering, chip guidance and advanced control software suddenly take over and you have a robot car that is essentially a highly sophisticated shell around the driver and passengers.
These vehicles will be ultra-smart and covered in very light but resilient materials, with extensive glass areas (but probably not made of glass) and will be capable of being designed to suit any taste or age requirement.
Smart software development (see elsewhere) will ensure this car, or even bus, can guided away from potential accidents, obstacles and impediments to movement, such as road works.
The MIT people have also come up with the idea of stacking these cars in the same way as supermarket trolleys can be parked. At some stage in the future you may be able to just unlock one of these vehicles and drive it as you need it, leaving it at some other location for someone else to use.
However, the one development in future transport modes that is perhaps the most exciting is the Maglev. Its inventors say it will combine the "ship, the wheel and the airplane" as a mainstay in moving people and goods around the world.
The Maglev (MAGnetic LEVitation) uses high speed vehicles that are lifted by magnetic revulsion, and propelled along an elevated guide way by powerful magnets attached to the vehicle.
The vehicles do not physically contact the guide way, do not need engines and do not burn fuel. They operate in the open air or tunnels, cost about two cents per passenger per mile to run and would be able to travel from "New York to Los Angeles in an hour" according to 21st Century Science and Technology magazine.
Don't laugh. The Maglev is already operating in Japan where it travels on a 20 km guide way in Yamanashi at speeds of over 500 km/hr.