Foreword
The author is deeply concerned about the environment and incredibly frustrated by the lack of “big ideas” for addressing climate change. We keep being told that technology can help to reduce our impact on the environment without damaging our quality of life – but there are precious few examples of this that are not only tangible and significant but also credible and definitely achievable.
Incremental changes to the way we live will not make the difference we need. We need some step changes. There is huge focus and investment in getting more energy from sustainable sources but vested interests in the way we live today hinder us in seeing how we could live tomorrow. We should, for example, be looking for ways to reduce the amount of energy we need dramatically – for example, in areas such as transport. Doing this in a way that improves our lives rather than diminishes them feels like it might be too much to ask for.
In 1998, the British government started to put together an “Integrated Transport Strategy” – which was deeply unimaginative and not even very “integrated”. At that time, the author formulated and documented (but did not publish or disclose) proposals for a revolution in the way “stuff” is delivered to and collected from our homes. This entailed fundamental changes to the world’s postal, dairy, supermarket and online delivery services as well as refuse collection and recycling. Done properly, it can also make a big difference to how we travel, how and where we work and how we interact with our local community.
From 2000 onwards the developed world fell in love with online shopping and home deliveries. In 2007, the price of oil shot up and by 2009, President Obama made the United States join the rest of us in taking climate change seriously. since the dream was first written down, wireless technology, electric vehicles and automated goods handling systems have become mainstream.
The time is now ripe to dust off these ideas and make them happen. This document is a first step along that path. It sets out a vision of life with a properly designed, organised and run infrastructure for the transport of goods and people to and from their homes. It is not a work of science fiction. Everything described can be done using current mainstream technology. It describes a place and a way of life that I – and everyone I’ve explained it to – would like to inhabit.