Intelligent travel: planning for the revolution

This paper describes the 50-year view by the UK Government's Foresight programme of the future of intelligent transport infrastructure, its implications and its social context. By 2055, it is envisaged that intelligence and pervasive information will be built in to everyday life, encompassing needs to communicate and travel. People will better understand the resource implications as well as the direct costs of their lifestyles—and perhaps they will actually travel less. However, given the slow speed at which infrastructure systems adapt, the research concluded that civil engineers need to start planning now for the inevitable travel revolution. The paper is based on the author's 2006 Unwin lecture, delivered to the Institution of Civil Engineers and Institution of Mechanical Engineers on 6 April 2006, prepared with Phil Blythe of Newcastle University.