moving into the future

Via the Bartlett Architecture Listing…

Moving into the future?
The next step for mobility
Sunday 28 October, 4.00pm until 5.30pm, Lecture Theatre 2 Salon Debates

Given the opportunity, most people want to travel. Almost any measure of mobility, from car ownership to international flights, shows that we are covering more miles than our parents, and many more than our grandparents. In the past 20 years, the number of trips abroad by UK residents tripled to over 66 million. Whether it’s living further from where we work, spreading our social circle wider, or going on more adventurous holidays, we are embracing the benefits of faster, cheaper transport.But moving around uses energy, and saving energy is the new mantra. Can we, and should we, square the new freedom to move with the desire to reduce the human footprint? Experience shows that making transport more efficient doesn’t save energy, because people simply use that efficiency to make their time and money budget go further - literally.

What mobility should we demand in the future: energy-efficient public transport to tempt more people out of their cars? Smart technology that reduces unnecessary trips through videoconferencing and internet shopping? Or simply more, faster and cheaper ways of getting about that can open up the new freedom to move to everyone on the planet?