Transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

today is mostly powered by fossil fuel. The reason for this is the ease of use and the existence of mature technologies harnessing this fuel source.

Fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...

represent a concentrated, relatively compact source of energy. The drawbacks are that they are heavily polluting and rely on limited natural resources. There are many proposals to harness renewable forms of energy, to use fossil fuel more efficiently, or to use human power, or some hybrid of these, to move people and things. The list below contains some forms of transport not in general use, but considered as possibilities in the future.

Proposed future transport

* Air-propelled train (abandoned in 19th century) ** Bounce tube

pneumatic Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in Industrial sector, industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A central ...

travel (Proposed by Robert A. Heinlein in 1956) **

Vactrain A vactrain (or vacuum tube train) is a proposed design for very-high-speed rail transportation. It is a maglev (magnetic levitation) line using partly evacuated tubes or tunnels. Reduced air resistance could permit vactrains to travel at very hig ...

also known as ET3 * BiModal Glideway (Dual Mode Transportation System) travel (Proposed by William D. Davis, Jr. in 1967) * TEV Project (proposed by Will Jones in Summer 2012) * Dual-mode vehicle * Hyperloop * Intelligent Transportation System *

Jet pack A jet pack, rocket belt, or rocket pack is a device worn on the back which uses jets of gas or liquid to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and became widespread in the 1960s. ...

Backpack helicopter A backpack helicopter is a helicopter motor and rotor and controls assembly that can be strapped to a person's back, so they can walk about on the ground wearing it, and can use it to fly. It uses a harness like a parachute harness and should hav ...

Personal air vehicle A personal air vehicle (PAV) is a proposed type of aircraft providing on-demand aviation services. The emergence of this alternative to traditional ground transport methods has been enabled by unmanned aerial vehicle technologies and electric pr ...

(Flying car) *

Personal rapid transit Personal rapid transit (PRT), also referred to as podcars or guided/railed taxis, is a public transport mode featuring small low-capacity automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guideways. PRT is a type of automated guideway ...

Shweeb Shweeb is a proposed personal rapid transit network in New Zealand, based on human-powered monorail cars. The project prototype was originally designed and implemented in Rotorua, New Zealand, as a leisure attraction. The proposed Shweeb tran ...

Rolling road Maryland Route 166 (MD 166) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs from Interstate 195 (I-195) in Arbutus north to MD 144 in Catonsville. MD 166 consists of two sections: a short freeway section that serves a ...

(proposed by Robert A. Heinlein in 1940) **

Slidewalk A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...

(proposed by Robert A. Heinlein in 1948) *

Teleportation Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature and in other popular culture. Teleportation is oft ...

SkyTran Skytran (stylized as skyTran) is a personal rapid transit system concept. It was first proposed by inventor Douglas Malewicki in 1990, and is under development by Unimodal Inc. A prototype of the skyTran vehicle and a section of track have be ...

Spacecraft propulsion Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. In-space propulsion exclusively deals with propulsion systems used in the vacuum of space and should not be confused with space launch or atmospheric e ...

or Space transport **

Launch loop A launch loop, or Lofstrom loop, is a proposed system for launching objects into orbit using a moving cable-like system situated inside a sheath attached to the Earth at two ends and suspended above the atmosphere in the middle. The design conce ...

** Orbital ring **

Light sail Solar sails (also known as light sails and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large mirrors. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigation have been p ...

(proposed by Jack Vance in 1962) ** Space elevator (proposed by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895)

References

{{reflist

External links

Global Intelligent Transportation System
(proposed by Vladimir Postnikov in 2010)

Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

Future transport