With the number of vehicles on the road around the world expected to grow to more than two billion by the 2040s, traffic congestion on roads will worsen to significant degree. Producing 20 per cent of all air pollution, gas-burning vehicles increasingly threaten the air quality and the health of people living in the affected areas. As construction projects seek to expand roads to accommodate the increase in vehicles, more of our open spaces will need to be given over to roads or rail ...

In the 1960s animated sitcom 'The Jetsons', George Jetson commutes to work in his family-size flying car, which miraculously transforms into a briefcase at the end of the trip. A study of the environmental sustainability impacts of flying cars, formally known as electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or VTOLs, finds that they wouldn't be suitable for a Jetsons-style short commute. Vertical takeoff and landing like a helicopter However, VTOLs - which combine the ...

The recent announcement that EU rules for fitting speed limiters to new cars from 2022 will be adopted by the UK was welcomed by many, including the European Transport Safety Council, as a move that will save lives. However, not everyone is convinced by this 'guardian angel' technology. The AA pointed out that there are times, when overtaking for example, when temporarily exceeding the speed limit may be safer. Others have said that proposed 'black boxes' that would record a vehicle’s ...

A massive redevelopment of the old Royal Albert Dock in East London is transforming the derelict waterfront to a gleaming business district. The project, which started in June 2017, will create 325,000 square metres of prime office space – a 'city within a city', as it has been dubbed – for Asian finance and tech firms. Then, in 2018, authorities in Kampala, Uganda celebrated as a ferry on Lake Victoria was unloaded with goods from the Indian Ocean, onto a rail service into the city. This ...

Potholes are a perennial problem. They are dangerous to road users, and the damage they cause to vehicles can be hugely expensive. The cost of repairing them is also vast. But still they appear, and reappear, in countless places. So why do these pesky crevices pose such a difficult challenge? And is there any light at the end of this pothole-filled tunnel? Potholes often begin as imperceptible microscopic cracks in the road surface. Bad weather, poor drainage and heavy traffic can all ...

The idea of free public transport has clear appeal. Cities in France and Germany are already considering such proposals, to reduce traffic and air pollution. And in the UK, Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn declared that he would introduce free bus travel for under-25s, to complement the passes already available to senior citizens. But the evidence suggests that offering free public transport causes headaches for local authorities – and may not be an effective way of getting commuters to ...