For the first time in half a century, real transformative innovations are coming to our world of passenger transportation. The convergence of new shared mobility services with automated and electric vehicles promises to significantly reshape our lives and communities for the better-or for the worse.
The dream scenario could bring huge public and private benefits, including more transportation choices, greater affordability and accessibility, and healthier, more livable cities, along with reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The nightmare scenario could bring more urban sprawl, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and unhealthy cities and individuals.
In Three Revolutions, transportation expert Dan Sperling, along with seven other leaders in the field, share research–based insights on potential public benefits and impacts of the three transportation revolutions. They describe innovative ideas and partnerships, and explore the role government policy can play in steering the new transportation paradigm toward the public interest-toward our dream scenario of social equity, environmental sustainability, and urban livability.
Many factors will influence these revolutions-including the willingness of travelers to share rides and eschew car ownership; continuing reductions in battery, fuel cell, and automation costs; and the adaptiveness of companies. But one of the most important factors is policy.
Three Revolutions offers policy recommendations and provides insight and knowledge that could lead to wiser choices by all. With this book, Sperling and his collaborators hope to steer these revolutions toward the public interest and a better quality of life for everyone.
"Highly readable and engaging." "Three Revolutions is a bold attempt to weave together the latest global developments in transportation, drawing on research in a variety of topics ranging from technology to economics to urban planning. Sperling and his colleagues make targeted recommendations for policy that can guide the new automated, electric, shared vehicles toward a bright future, while also sounding a clear warning about how these developments could actually make pollution, inequality, and congestion worse."---Mary Nichols, Chair, California Air Resources Board "Three Revolutions is a must-read for anyone who cares about guiding our cities to a safer climate future. A technological revolution alone will not get us there. This thoughtful book shows us how to drive policy change at the federal, state, and local level that will advance the three revolutions of electrification, automation, and pooling together While America waits for the return of strong federal leadership, we can and must make continue to make progress at all levels of government."---Roland Hwang, Director of the Energy and Transportation Program at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) "As Executive Director of the Transportation Research Board, I have an appreciation of the depth and quality of policy analysis and research that Dan Sperling and the other coauthors of Three Revolutions have contributed to this issue. They have clearly articulated and analyzed the choices we have in front of us and assessed the potential positive or negative consequences that might occur based on the policy choices that get made, or not made. These choices can make the difference between whether we have a safer, more sustainable, healthier, more livable, more equitable, and more economically viable future, or one where we are lamenting the negative consequences of the technological changes that have occurred. Three Revolutions gives us the insights needed to help make the wise policy choices."---Neil Pedersen, Executive Director, Transportation Research Board "Three Revolutions is essential reading for anyone interested in how technology and mobility will shape our communities and our lives. This extremely timely book helps to inform the various decisions we need to make as these new technolog
