The last one hundred years have been a time of great innovation in the field of transportation.  Since 1908 and the release of Henry Ford’s Model T, the movement of the world has progressed to automobile and mass transit dependent metropolitan areas.  By integrating the recent technology of hybrid systems, the future of transportation could improve the environment and solve widespread congestion problems.  Whether by increasing the amount of hybrid automobiles being manufactured, by raising the elevation of ground transportation, or by creating complex computer operated transit systems, the future of movement on earth is evolving quickly with the help of engineers.

 

Each day engineers face the challenge of searching for ways to create a fuel-efficient vehicle that still maintains a consumer-desired level of performance.  As car companies release improved hybrid models and sport utility vehicle versions, the cost of gas rises and the amount of oil accessible to the world decreases.  Researchers are being forced to search for alternatives to a swiftly growing problem.  Alternative fuels may be the answer, but the current move to hybrid modes of transportation is the first step to decreasing the amount of negative emissions into the atmosphere.  In the next one hundred years, the hybrid system will not only become affordable and reduce the world’s dependence on oil, but it will become a large part in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.

 

With the current state of the earth’s environment and its steady decline into global warming, a switch to automated transportation systems would be beneficial in various ways.  By moving to an automated system, the use of electric or fuel-efficient cars in these systems would reduce emissions and pollution.  The idea of a personal rapid transit system could be the most feasible of ideas for future transportation.  The greatest challenge would be integrating automated systems into today’s manually driven systems.  To overcome implementation issues, cars are already being designed and tested.  Imagine the ability to access a system, from any location, which would send a personal car to pick up passengers.  The implication of a network of vehicles driving themselves creates endless possibilities in solving congestion problems.  If vehicles are run by computers and are automated in an organized system, accidents caused by human error would be eliminated and a perfected system would control flow more efficiently.

 

From at-grade roadways to complex concrete bridges intertwining at highway interchanges, the elevation of ground transportation is ever increasing.  In metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, engineers are searching for alternatives to highway widening because of the lack of expansion space.  The only place left to build is up.  Engineers are being asked to create roadways high above interstates while maintaining a high structural integrity and taking into consideration construction constraints.  The addition of such structures will allow for the implementation of separate systems between the ground traffic and the elevated movement.  Options range from simply making one system exclusively carpool or toll and the other standard, to switching the direction of traffic in one system to follow the needs of movement at any given time during the day.  With controlled flow, congestion could be significantly reduced, therefore decreasing driver stress levels and helping the environment through fewer emissions.

 

The influence engineers have on the future of transportation will not only affect the environment, but will connect the nations of the world on a new level.  By increasing transportation efficiency, the use of more expensive modes of transportation will become easily accessible to the masses and expose a more diverse group of people to the possibilities of travel.  The advances of transportation systems through the evolution of hybrid automobiles, the integration of new heights into design, and the development of computer guided transit systems are only possible because of the ingenuity of engineers everywhere.  The future of the world relies on the creative genius of men and women at research universities such as USC.  With their help, in the next one hundred years people will live in an increasingly pleasant environment.  Now if only we could convince sports-car drivers everywhere to sacrifice their speed for clean air.