TRANSPORT

Public transportation in many areas of the world is impractical and far from ideal in execution. The most popular solution, the automobile, is a large source of waste throughout its lifecycle as well as collectively one of the greatest emitters of air pollution and hazardous waste generation in the world. The automobile is also a considerable expense for individuals, yet the number of them in active use increases every year at a greater rate than population growth can justify.

Why? The automobile began as a status symbol and billions in annual marketing by the car companies has worked hard to maintain that perception through the years. As cars have become more ubiquitous in industrialized countries, they have also become a canvas for self-expression much like clothing. What does the automobile offer that is so appealing? First, from a practical stand point, it's the most weather-proof solution to transport needs as well as offering far more freedom of movement to any destination than any other form of transport. Increasingly, the latter is giving way to frustration as more and more cars driven by ever more poorly-trained drivers clog the road in massive traffic jams.

Despite this, the strong appeal remains. Even beyond the efforts of marketing, the automobile appeals to the primal human urge for control as well as isolation from others in a world where it becomes harder and harder to get away from the crowds. The automobile provides its owner with their own music while they ride in the safety cocoon of an enveloping steel body at their preferred temperature and humidity. Even the most modest offer the ability for its owner to travel with several people at a greater rate of speed than any horse could offer. The power, measured in many multiples of the work that can be performed by the horse it replaced and the sometimes addictive rush of acceleration it provides, is just the flex of a foot away. Yet increasingly, the environmental impact and ineffective road ways are convincing many people to see the automobile as an expensive nuisance, a necessary evil in the face of a lack of viable public transportation and living in sprawling suburbs designed around the distance-spanning possibilities afforded by the automobile.

Modern cities are either designed around the automobile or have been extensively redesigned to adapt to it. In the future, whole older sections of the original cities will be preserved for character and to maintain a link to the past, as our megapolises are expanded and renewed. Streets and buildings will be designed to best meet the needs of the humans living in them rather than the machinery we have become sentimentally attached to. With the large self-contained living complexes, people will have little need to travel far and with more finite destinations, monorails become an efficient, practical, and economical alternative. Stations will be enclosed within the living complexes, providing weather protection as well as ease of access. From there, citizens can be whisked away in quiet, clean high-speed comfort to nearly any destination, similar to a modern subway system, but above ground and far cheaper to maintain. Countryside excursions will be a mere monorail line change or two away. And feel free to jump on as often and at any time you want - the rails will run twenty-four hours and will be completely subsidized by the state - a true joy for a government to pay for in place of the prohibitively expensive cost of maintaining the current highway system.

skappotis@gmail.com