ABSTRACT
The automobile is a central icon of our industrial society. In many ways, modern automobiles are responsible products from an industrial ecology standpoint. A successful urban transportation system will incorporate what people like about automobiles while minimising or eliminating what they dislike. There are three general approaches to doing so, requiring successively greater changes in lifestyle and infrastructure. In freight shipping, for example, efficient transport might require a combination of ocean freighter, barge, rail or semi-trailer truck to cross various physical landscapes. To optimise human transport, we must delineate the boundaries between these landscapes and choose transport modes suitable for each. This system does not view an urban journey as a single ride, with automobiles and public transport in competition the entire way. The backbone of the system is a radial network of high-speed transport, carrying through-traffic with infrequent stops.
