Future generations will come to realise that the “unfettered availability” of transport becomes “impossible on our over crowded planet” according to a former chief scientific advisor who spoke last Wednesday.

 

Professor Rod Smith who previously worked with the Department for Transport told a gathering of Sheffield University alumni that he thought “the personal ownership of cars will change to one of on-demand, aided by IT”. But he added that the advances of autonomous vehicles “will not be as revolutionary as some are predicting”.

 

Professor Smith was one of five panellists who gave their views on the future of infrastructure over the next 100 years, at an event to mark centenary of three of Sheffield University’s engineering departments.

 

He also said that railways will continue to play a role in alleviating congestion in cities, despite the mode being “expensive and relatively inflexible” and predicted that the Hyperloop concept “offers all the problems of railways in magnified form”.

 

When later pressed on his view that autonomous vehicles will not be as revolutionary as some are predicting he pointed out that they will be “of some use” in dense urban environments where shared ownership of vehicles could help reduce congestion.

 

“But we are still a long way from the idea that you will click your fingers and one will appear at your door and take you to Edinburgh,” he added.

 

Professor Smith is a long term proponent of high speed rail and was challenged at the meeting that the construction of High Speed 2 would provide great harm to ancient woodland, local people and natural habitats. 

 

“Of course people don’t want it at their back door and they want it to go somewhere else, but all human progress requires some sort of compromise,” he said. Professor Smith went on to argue that we should be more concerned about the continual increase in air travel. “One long intercontinental flight will absolutely dominate a person’s carbon budget for the year. We need to think about that very carefully.”

 

(Photo: Anne Burgess and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)