A plan for 21st century land transport

This paper examines a methodology for reducing the CO2 generated by vehicular traffic, a major source of global warming. Climatologists say the world cannot wait 20 years for alternative fuels to start reversing the global warming trend-line, since by then considerable climate alteration and coastal damage will be manifest. The point is to dramatically reduce CO2, a by-product of internal combustion engine operations, as quickly as feasible to overcome the half-century lead-time of CO2 buildup already in the atmosphere. Since CO2 production correlates directly with vehicle mass, this paper makes the case for quickly reducing vehicle size. It also argues for re-introducing electric vehicles on a large scale, and altering the conventional highway configuration to achieve greater productivity. Fuel cells, even when fully accepted, will not improve important aspects of modern urban transport such as safety and traffic flow.