Executive summary
By 2035, technological developments in transport could make better use of capacity, result in less congestion and overcrowding, reduce environmental and health impacts and thereby improve quality of life. But some technologies may have adverse or unexpected consequences.
This report examines a range of issues relating to transport over the next 20-25 years and looks at potential new technologies ranging from autonomous electric cars to real time journey management.
Findings from this report include:
Dramatic increases in communications have more potential to improve journeys.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) has the potential to enable easier journeys.
Payment systems will continue to improve and make it easier for consumers to choose the most economic form of travel.
Social media use will provide a valuable source of knowledge about travellers’ perceptions for transport providers and researchers.
Open data provides a rich resource of travel data which enables trends to be monitored and changes to be forecast.
Transport must contribute to avoiding dangerous climate change and local health impacts by moving quickly to reduce the amount of carbon used.
There will be benefits of autonomous control.
Government should encourage competition between transport providers.
Policy makers should incorporate uncertainty in decision making.
