Options for Reducing Transportation Energy Use

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Notes:

Since this is about cars of the future, I will not say much about the idea of eliminating the need to travel, except that the practice of transporting one’s whole body to work, when all the employer really needs is your mind, is already being re-evaluated - and in fact, new working arrangements, lumped together under the heading of telecommuting, are already impacting the transportation habits of many of us.  And it’s certainly possible that cities could be restructured into smaller, self-sufficient communities like Arcosanti in Arizona, and people could live and work in their own communities with very little need for personal transportation.

My sense of it is that, while these are good ideas and they may become a part of future lifestyles, as far into the future as I can envision, the need for personal transportation will continue to grow, and in fact the growth rate will accelerate. With that in mind, the obvious question is what are the options in vehicle technology that are both affordable and will be most likely to lead to an environmentally sound and sustainable system.