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2006/12/26

Future Modes Of Transportation, And The Global Warming Issue

In the past months, the issue has been spread around by the media a lot, and it's without question a topic that affects everyone of us: Global warming is happening, and is threatening to affect our lifes and our surroundings in ways that we've never seen before. And not in some far-away future, but already in our lifetime. We need solutions and new ways of thinking in order to reduce the effects (it's already much too late to prevent them completely). On the other hand, no matter how much effort the western countries would put into a cleaner environment, could climate cope with, for example, countless millions of Chinese people getting ready for cars and all other benefits of modern technology?

Among many other things, what we need is a new concept for transportation. The age of the car and individual transport has to come to an end, or at least, has to be decreased dramatically. Ironically, while everyone in Germany is wailing over high gas prices, car manufacturers state that most people still buy powerful cars with high gas consumption. New technologies like hybrid cars are still not considered an option. I guess people first and foremost want to keep the fun of driving, and after all, a car is also a status symbol. Who would want to drive a clumsy eco-car after all? It's deemed boring.

To restrain traffic on the roads, Autobahn (motorway) tolls would be a way, and are in discussion already, with people yelling out in fear of these additional costs for travelling already. On the other hand, the money that the state gains from these tolls must and should be put into new ways of infrastructure, and providing an alternative to travelling by car is one of the most important goals. One concept is the “People Cargo Mover”. This monorail-like train system can be built along motorways and allows quick transportation and good transfer to local transportation in cities, and can in fact run as a subway inside cities. And it can be used for passengers as well as cargo. Watch the movies on the website to get an idea of the concept. The German version of the site has much more information, which sadly is not available in the English version.


Comments

Cathy Dictter
– 2006-12-27 02:39:05

You should watch "An Inconvenient truth" by Davis Guggenheim (stars Al Gore) if you have access and also if you can't check http://www.climatecrisis.net/ Pablo and I enjoyed this documentary.

Cathy Dictter
– 2006-12-27 02:43:43

Post Comment: Even Though the movie is mainly for the US. Al Gore also mentioned other countries (or nations) as well. You just posted a very good subject in which all of us are involved for a better and cleaner world.

Coco
– 2006-12-27 10:45:12

this could have been the vehicle of the future:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

– 2006-12-30 20:07:09

Cathy, thanks for your comments. I heard about that documentary and I will look for it.

– 2010-06-03 13:37:21

http://google.com
[url=http://google.com] http://google.com [/url]


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