_______________________________________________________________________________________________ Public transport
industry , Networks of Power , Thomas Hughes illustrated the way that technology disseminated through an economy . To begin with , a new technology is used to replace elements of the existing system one for one , wherever there can be cost savings . Eventually , however , the technology enables different ways of doing things that change the system itself . With electricity this took at least fifty years . Computing too , took time to have an impact . Robert Solow famously observed in 1987 ( 40 years after the first commercial electronic computers were introduced ) that the computer age was visible everywhere except in the productivity statistics , and another forty years later we can see some industries ( such as music and film ) radically transformed by those technologies , but others ( including transport ) are still in the first phase … their fundamental structure and business model is barely touched ; using IT and telecommunications just to do this or that thing a bit faster or cheaper . But it won ’ t stay like that .
So , how do I imagine public transport will change in the future ? The only thing I can be certain of is that we have the opportunity to radically transform our transport systems for the better . To find out how , we ’ ll need to listen to both users and non-users and aim to design our public transportation system to make it appealing to everyone . We ’ ll need to build in flexibility to adapt , to accommodate features that might be a huge expense to
retrofit . We ’ ll need to look at other countries and be willing to see which things they are doing better than us . And maybe most importantly : we need to be willing to continue to invest in public transport .
To be able to design something better , we need to define what “ better ” is , and that requires us to be alert to the different ways we think about notions like “ public transport ”. If public transport is about , and for , the people , then we need to understand what will serve the people and bring the people along with us for the ride . ■
For a list of the resources used in this article , please contact the editor .
Paul Campion www . trl . co . uk
TRL is a global center for innovation in surface transport and mobility . TRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Transport Research Foundation ( TRF ), a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee , and established for the impartial furtherance of transport and related research , consultancy , and expert advice .
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