roads - an exercise in nostalgia

Roads today - congested, full of untrained drivers, expensive and killing the atmosphere ...



Already a common sight, and becoming commoner.



Soon those of us left with the means will have little choice but to use one of these.



What will replace roads.

Roads are an endangered species, not just cars, lorries and buses. Very few people seem to have twigged this yet, even within Transition. The problem is that roads need a certain level of traffic to make them viable. Within a few years traffic will have fallen off so far thanks to Peak Oil that in most cases it will not be economically viable to maintain roads, particularly bearing in mind that roads themselves need oil to be built and maintained. There will be a vicious downward spiral as more and more cars lay idle in drives and as the clamours for reinstated rail get louder and louder. The tax take will fall and roads will begin to fall into disrepair. Soon many will only be suitable for 4x4s - ironically! Some roads will be converted to railways, others to cycleways or bridleways, but most will simply vanish.

This is why I believe there is no long term future for any form of powered road transport as the oil runs out. There is no way the alternatives, even if they can be made to work economically, would ever be on the same scale as the internal combustion engine. There will be a point when government will have to take the unpopular step of closing roads. So talk of biodiesel, fuel cells and electric cars will all fall at this hurdle, even if it were possible to produce small quantities of them (and find the raw materials, energy and skills to build them) there will be nowhere for them to run.

The land transport future is clearly walking, cycling, horse, light rail (electric) and heavy rail (electric and steam). Transport policy has to revolve around these options, assigning any others to the pages of the petroleum interlude history books.