Author: Smith, Roderick A;
Published: 13
December
2007
Abstract
Transport is an essential element of our society. It determines where we live, where we work and how we enjoy our leisure time.
It enables the exchange of goods which are essential to our economy. It has resulted in a global economy.
Growth in demand is linked to growth in the economy. As we get richer, we travel further and faster. And travelling further and
faster uses more energy and produces more emissions.
Transport is now one of the largest components of our energy use and this proportion is growing. Because of the dominance of
the car, transport fuel use is dominated by burning hydrocarbons with resultant carbon dioxide production. It is largely because
of growing transport demand that we will certainly fail to meet our emissions targets. Indeed this problem is becoming ever
more intractable because of the present lack of coherent Government energy, transport and environment policy.
This lecture will outline the engineering challenge generated by this problem and discuss some possible solutions. All modes of
land, sea and air transport will be examined, together with alternative fuels, mitigation prospects and the role of technology in
reducing transport demand.
Professor Roderick A Smith is currently the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professor in Advanced Railway
Engineering and Chairman of the Future Rail Research Centre at Imperial College London. He has previously been Head of
Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield and Imperial College. He is a Trustee of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers and of the National Museum of Science and Industry.