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Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil
Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight without Oil sets out the challenges to our growing dependence on transport fuelled by low-priced oil. These challenges include an early peak in world oil production and profound climate change resulting in part from oil use. It proposes responses to ensure effective, secure movement of people and goods in ways that make the best use of renewable sources of energy while minimizing environmental impacts. Transport Revolutions synthesizes engineering, economics, environment, organization, policy and technology, and draws extensively on current data to present important conclusions. The authors argue that land transport in the first half of the 21st century will feature at least two revolutions. One will involve the use of electric drives rather than internal combustion engines. Another will involve powering many of these drives directly from the electric grid - as trains and trolley buses are powered today - rather than from on-board fuel. They go on to discuss marine transport, whose future is less clear, and aviation, which could see the most dramatic breaks from current practice. With its expert analysis of the politics and business of transport, Transport Revolutions is essential reading for professionals and students in transport, energy, town planning and public policy.
376 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
4 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Richard Gilbert
3 books4 followersRichard Gilbert has had many jobs during a long working life including high-school teacher, university professor, government scientist, elected politician, journalist, and consultant on transportation and urban issues with clients on five continents.
He's produced numerous non-fiction books and one novel, Skinner's Quests, published in 2016 (see http://www.bordenhouse.info).
He's produced numerous non-fiction books and one novel, Skinner's Quests, published in 2016 (see http://www.bordenhouse.info).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 29, 2016
Very unusually, I've read a book of some relevance to my PhD. ‘Transport Revolutions’ comes from a transport policy and practise rather than theoretical perspective, making it more readable than much academic work on this subject. The authors advance the thesis that peak oil is coming - the book was published in 2008 and they estimate 2012 as the date of peak - and a revolution in transport is needed to address this.
Personally, although I am convinced by the argument that peak oil is quite immanent, the challenge of climate change seems to me more critical. The world still has more fossil fuel reserves, including oil, than it can possibly burn without resulting in catastrophic climate change. This is not a criticism of the book per se, as the authors clearly delineate their scope. ‘Transport Revolutions’ focuses on the period to 2025 and considers the oil consumption trajectory of transport, rather than the emissions trajectory. Although the two correlate, they should by no means be treated as interchangeable. If oil was supplanted as the leading transport fuel by coal-generated electricity, the world’s greenhouse gas emissions trajectory would take a disastrous upward turn. (And it is quite disastrous enough as it is.) The authors do note this, but do not in my view give quite enough credence to the interdependencies between climate change policy and tackling oil dependence. This is perhaps a point about the short term vs the long term - the authors treat peak oil as requiring action in the short term problem whereas climate change action can be longer term. Recent scientific findings regarding melting permafrost and resulting methane releases suggest that climate change mitigation is of overwhelming concern in the short, medium, and long term.
Quibbling aside, there is a lot of useful material in this book. The concept of revolutionary change in transport is very helpful, as a counterbalance to the domination of economics and engineering in transport policy. Both disciplines presuppose incremental change - engineering in terms of infrastructure enhancements, economics in terms of price changes, and both in terms of gradual technological change. Neither tends to consider the political, cultural, and social elements of transport as anything but an afterthought. The rise of mobility as a sub-discipline (see Mobilities by John Urry) is something of a reaction against this. Although ‘Transport Revolutions’ does not explicitly situate itself within the mobility field, it takes a refreshingly strategic view of transport and recounts how major historical shifts have been led by the public sector. There is also a chapter that attempts to review work on the adverse impacts of transport. This is a heroic endeavour which inevitably couldn’t cover everything. The main omission seems to be literature from epidemiology on the health effects of car dependence. On the other hand, the inclusion of freight transport as well as personal transport throughout the book was a definite advantage, as it is often ignored or forgotten. I’ve been guilty of this myself.
The book concludes with a proposal to launch a new transport revolution, tailored to America and China. As the authors readily admit, this is much more substantive for America. I found the suggestions regarding international co-operation and rail investment interesting and well thought-out. On the other hand, the matter of car ownership did not seem to be adequately addressed. I was delighted to find on pages 82-86 bald acknowledgement that when cars are owned they are used thus, ‘it follows that limiting car ownership would be an effective factor in limited car use. However, most strategies for limiting car use do not address ownership.’ It is vanishingly rare to see this acknowledged in transport policy literature and it raised my hopes of further discussion on how car ownership might be subject to policy. Sadly, the point was not mentioned again. (As far as I can tell, car ownership control is rarely mentioned as it is antithetical to economic and engineering perspectives on transport policy, as well as politically taboo everywhere except Singapore.)
Overall the book gets four stars as it is useful and original in its approach. The concept of an electric tram/streetcar renaissance is an appealing one, although I’m a little dubious about the cheerleading for unproven PRT (Personal Rapid Transport). The scope of the book is largely limited to policy proscriptions for peak oil, so although climate change policy researchers will find parts to be transferable, it does not accord with the state of climate science in 2013.
Personally, although I am convinced by the argument that peak oil is quite immanent, the challenge of climate change seems to me more critical. The world still has more fossil fuel reserves, including oil, than it can possibly burn without resulting in catastrophic climate change. This is not a criticism of the book per se, as the authors clearly delineate their scope. ‘Transport Revolutions’ focuses on the period to 2025 and considers the oil consumption trajectory of transport, rather than the emissions trajectory. Although the two correlate, they should by no means be treated as interchangeable. If oil was supplanted as the leading transport fuel by coal-generated electricity, the world’s greenhouse gas emissions trajectory would take a disastrous upward turn. (And it is quite disastrous enough as it is.) The authors do note this, but do not in my view give quite enough credence to the interdependencies between climate change policy and tackling oil dependence. This is perhaps a point about the short term vs the long term - the authors treat peak oil as requiring action in the short term problem whereas climate change action can be longer term. Recent scientific findings regarding melting permafrost and resulting methane releases suggest that climate change mitigation is of overwhelming concern in the short, medium, and long term.
Quibbling aside, there is a lot of useful material in this book. The concept of revolutionary change in transport is very helpful, as a counterbalance to the domination of economics and engineering in transport policy. Both disciplines presuppose incremental change - engineering in terms of infrastructure enhancements, economics in terms of price changes, and both in terms of gradual technological change. Neither tends to consider the political, cultural, and social elements of transport as anything but an afterthought. The rise of mobility as a sub-discipline (see Mobilities by John Urry) is something of a reaction against this. Although ‘Transport Revolutions’ does not explicitly situate itself within the mobility field, it takes a refreshingly strategic view of transport and recounts how major historical shifts have been led by the public sector. There is also a chapter that attempts to review work on the adverse impacts of transport. This is a heroic endeavour which inevitably couldn’t cover everything. The main omission seems to be literature from epidemiology on the health effects of car dependence. On the other hand, the inclusion of freight transport as well as personal transport throughout the book was a definite advantage, as it is often ignored or forgotten. I’ve been guilty of this myself.
The book concludes with a proposal to launch a new transport revolution, tailored to America and China. As the authors readily admit, this is much more substantive for America. I found the suggestions regarding international co-operation and rail investment interesting and well thought-out. On the other hand, the matter of car ownership did not seem to be adequately addressed. I was delighted to find on pages 82-86 bald acknowledgement that when cars are owned they are used thus, ‘it follows that limiting car ownership would be an effective factor in limited car use. However, most strategies for limiting car use do not address ownership.’ It is vanishingly rare to see this acknowledged in transport policy literature and it raised my hopes of further discussion on how car ownership might be subject to policy. Sadly, the point was not mentioned again. (As far as I can tell, car ownership control is rarely mentioned as it is antithetical to economic and engineering perspectives on transport policy, as well as politically taboo everywhere except Singapore.)
Overall the book gets four stars as it is useful and original in its approach. The concept of an electric tram/streetcar renaissance is an appealing one, although I’m a little dubious about the cheerleading for unproven PRT (Personal Rapid Transport). The scope of the book is largely limited to policy proscriptions for peak oil, so although climate change policy researchers will find parts to be transferable, it does not accord with the state of climate science in 2013.
January 24, 2013
Sound ideas about the future of our transportation system.
Also ideas that will for the most part only be implemented in practice at the last minute.
This would be a perfect book if the world were like Transport Tycoon. It isn't and notably China has failed at meeting reasonable targets proposed at the date of publication in 2008; China has embraced an internal combustion engine, automobile-driven transport culture more than ever.
The US and other countries are not doing much better either.
Go figure.
Also ideas that will for the most part only be implemented in practice at the last minute.
This would be a perfect book if the world were like Transport Tycoon. It isn't and notably China has failed at meeting reasonable targets proposed at the date of publication in 2008; China has embraced an internal combustion engine, automobile-driven transport culture more than ever.
The US and other countries are not doing much better either.
Go figure.
March 31, 2024
The book is pretty dated on its optimism in the world pushing for more alternative energy sources to run transport vehicles that is not oil based. Spoke about Solar Airships, Personal Rapid Transit systems, wind-based and solar powered shipping vessels more expansion of overhead electric wire based transport infrastructure. It’s funny to look at the current times that not much has changed, and the optimism for less flights, car ownership, change of transport patterns is based on the Great Recession. The world bounced back and consumed more until the pause of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
It has an odd obsession about Trolley buses and trucks and Personal Rapid transit replacing internal combustion engined vehicles and to supplement or replaced public transit. Spoke about CAFE standards which is a loophole for bigger gas guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs follows the guidelines, which still hasn’t been fixed.
Also, none of the predictions of the USA heavily investing in electrifying railways other than stated or municipal based transit agencies, and California High Speed Rail still hasn’t opened yet nor near to completion. Battery electric buses are new transitional buses for zero emissions than actually decrease oil consumption, and only one city implemented trolley buses. General Motors shares of the Government have been sold off, so not much any influence on that anymore.
It has an odd obsession about Trolley buses and trucks and Personal Rapid transit replacing internal combustion engined vehicles and to supplement or replaced public transit. Spoke about CAFE standards which is a loophole for bigger gas guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs follows the guidelines, which still hasn’t been fixed.
Also, none of the predictions of the USA heavily investing in electrifying railways other than stated or municipal based transit agencies, and California High Speed Rail still hasn’t opened yet nor near to completion. Battery electric buses are new transitional buses for zero emissions than actually decrease oil consumption, and only one city implemented trolley buses. General Motors shares of the Government have been sold off, so not much any influence on that anymore.
September 25, 2013
This is an interesting book addressing a very important issue. It is an easy-to-read book, written in a language that is understandable even for those that are not in academia or not very much acquainted with sicentific terms and language.
The finite nature of resources (i.e. of pretty much everything that exists in the natural world) is an unavoidable reality. The question is not of course whether peak oil exists or not, but rather when it will occur. It is difficult to predict though, due to misinformation and secrecy from large oil companies and governments. However, good approaches are taking place and public knowledge is growing, which is evident from many aspects (politics, industry and military).
At the end of the day, everything in our lives is influenced by transportation, and whether we like it or not, by fossil fuels. So, how are we going to solve this problem? That is what the author tries to bring to the table in this book.
The finite nature of resources (i.e. of pretty much everything that exists in the natural world) is an unavoidable reality. The question is not of course whether peak oil exists or not, but rather when it will occur. It is difficult to predict though, due to misinformation and secrecy from large oil companies and governments. However, good approaches are taking place and public knowledge is growing, which is evident from many aspects (politics, industry and military).
At the end of the day, everything in our lives is influenced by transportation, and whether we like it or not, by fossil fuels. So, how are we going to solve this problem? That is what the author tries to bring to the table in this book.
August 9, 2008
Excellent analysis of the reason why our present, oil-dependent transport system cannot be sustained - due to its impact on the climate, but even more urgently, due to the impending peak and subsequent decline in world oil supplies. Many books in this area do a great job of outlining the problems without proposing possible solutions, but "Transport Revolutions" makes a detailed set of proposals, focusing heavily on the increased use of electricity in land transport.
A great strength of the book is the extensive referencing, which makes it a very valuable resource when writing and presenting in these areas. A weakness is that the book doesn't address what might happen if its proposals don't work - in other words, there is no "Plan B", no consideration of a more decentralised, localised response to the end of the cheap energy era.
A great strength of the book is the extensive referencing, which makes it a very valuable resource when writing and presenting in these areas. A weakness is that the book doesn't address what might happen if its proposals don't work - in other words, there is no "Plan B", no consideration of a more decentralised, localised response to the end of the cheap energy era.
December 12, 2011
This book is so dense with facts that goodreads should give me credit for at least triple the pages.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews