‘Peak oil boost for our industry’: 2020 Vision

Alan Ponsford, Design Director, Capoco Design

Alan Ponsford, Design Director, Capoco Design

The first thing is to discount predictions by 50%, as changes over the last decade have not been fundamental.

However, the Twenty Teens are predicted to herald the arrival of Peak Oil. This will finally bring home the message that our transport needs to change dramatically. If specific energy (the energy per unit mass) rises up the pecking order, then public transport is in for a sustained boost. This is not the only measure, however. Yes, a fully loaded A380 can match a driver in a modern eco-car at around 100g/km of CO2; some 30g/km of fuel per person. But the car tends not to do 15,000km in a single day. We need to address both the g’s and the km’s.

In the bus sector, technical developments will be down-weighting, electric hybrid drives and operational automation.

Find out more at the New Transit Exhibition and Conference:
Travel 2020:  the future of passenger travel and its technologies