Transportation – Part 6: Is the Internal Combustion Engine Doomed to Extinction?
When we talk about automobiles to aficionados they talk about 8-cylinder, 400 horsepower, twin exhausts, overhead cams and lots of other jargon associated with the internal combustion engine. In this blog we look at engine technology and speculate on the fate of the internal combustion engine (ICE) in the 21st century. ICE today is seeing
Read More…
Transportation – Part 3: Energy Conservation and Alternative Fuels
According to Ward’s Auto there are more than 1 billion automobiles and light trucks on the road today with forecasts reaching 2.5 billion by mid-century. At current levels of consumption per vehicle 2.5 billion automobiles will translate to 150 million barrels of oil per day, compared to today’s 90 million barrels. The automobile and oil
Read More…
Transportation – Part 2: Urbanization and Population Growth
Modern urban communities are knit together by transportation arteries. Some of these arteries are rail. Some are roads. Urban communities on rivers, lakes and oceans have the added advantage of waterways to provide connectivity. But the vehicle most responsible for modern North American cities is the automobile. In the United States today that are close
Read More…
Transportation – Part 1: Where We Will Go and on What in the 21st Century
The 20th century was the age of the internal combustion engine just as the 19th was the age of steam. Humanity went from horse and buggy, sail and balloons to the development of railway networks, automobiles, engine-driven ships, airplanes and rockets. The world became a lot smaller place as transportation technology evolved faster ways to
Read More…
