Customer Reviews

Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil

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This book is very readable and on target, also fully footnoted. Informed by Peak Oil in addition to global warming, the academic authors prescribe a tonic of electric rail to head off our coming woes.

This means high speed rail between cities to replace many road trips and most short haul air travel, plus urban rail systems to get around in metropolitan areas. But it also includes electric trolley buses and electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, including trucks. Reason: electric vehicles are not only efficient, but the electricity may come from a variety of renewable sources.

However they seem to have gone overboard in regard to "grid connected vehicles" when they prescribe Personal Rapid Transit. The problem here is that PRT is mostly just a concept, backed by highly questionable simulations and cost estimates. Experts who look at the fundamentals see costs that vastly outweigh the benefits, except in very limited circumstances, such as at Heathrow. And with big declines in air travel projected, even the airport application of PRT needs to be questioned.

But Gilbert and Perl are right on target when they say that the first order of business, whether in the US or China, is to stop digging ourselves deeper in the the fossil fuel hole. An example now gaining currency in the US would be "no new general purpose freeway lanes". Another is to stop all airport expansions.

Given the vast waste and luxury in US society, the US could certainly afford the $1 trillion cost that they project for the high speed train network. But finding the political will is another matter, as the costs of food and fuel skyrocket and credit bubbles burst and wars drain resources, leaving economic decline in their wake.

Nevertheless, we need more academics joining activists to tell the world that is is what needs to be done.

I declare an interest. On the back cover I am quoted: "Gilbert and Perle challenge the wishful thinking that underpins transport planning all around the world in a way that is impossible to ignore. This book should be on the desk of every transport minister's chief policy adviser." I have changed my mind. The book should be on the bedside table of every president and prime minister. It should be the last thing they read at night and the first thing in the morning. The implications of peak oil, explored in convincing detail in this book, should be their first priority. The book focuses on the challenges that the looming energy gap will pose for transport. But transport connects everything to everything else. If they are right all our lives are about to change dramatically. Read it and decide for yourself.

The information in this book is very interesting! When I read this book, I was very interested to learn about the history of transportation developments, the reasons why transportation has developed the way it has over the centuries and years, the reasons why transportation has to change from the way it is now, and what the changes that need to be made are. I like books that talk about solutions to problems and better alternatives to the status quo.

It is also interesting to learn how the transportation scene in China compares with (and contrasts from) that in the U.S. As this book's authors say, China is the most populated of the world's less developed nations, and the U.S. is the most populated of the world's highly developed nations.