Transportation Journals

Transport Technologies

Climate Change Working Paper No. 5

Ainsley Jolley

Climate Change Project Working Paper Series

March 2006

Centre for Strategic Economic Studies Victoria University PO Box 14428 Melbourne VIC 8001 AUSTRALIA Telephone +613 9919 1340 Fax +613 9919 1350 Email: csesinfo@vu.edu.au Website: http://www.cfses.com

Transport Technologies

1. The Technologies

Introduction The threat of increasingly unsustainable transportation systems in the large cities of the world comes from the interaction between growing demand for transportation services and the environmental impact of transportation. Demand tends to grow at a geometric rate, while the environmental capacity (at given technologies) to handle such growth is fixed. Technology offers enormous possibilities for change in the longer run, but unless harnessed to the goal of sustainability, may aggravate some problems (such as traffic congestion) while in the process of fixing others (reducing emissions per road vehicle kilometre). A number of key influences are driving a process of accelerating technological change in land transportation. Traffic congestion is encouraging new technologies to be adopted in traffic management. Concerns about traffic safety are leading to a consideration of new technologies, particularly road design and automated vehicle control. The availability and price of crude oil is encouraging research and development on fuel economy, the use of alternative fuels, and the development of fuel cell-powered engines. Air pollution problems in urban areas are encouraging the development of technologies to reduce harmful emissions, and concerns about global warming are further adding to the search for low-emission transportation. These concerns are also reflected in the adoption of new regulatory policies by governments in such areas as fuel standards and fuel economy standards for new motor vehicles. Significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by...