We have the fossil fuelled car because of an unintended consequence

T

he fossil-fuelled car became the pre-eminent mode of transport because of an unintended consequence.

Steam powered cars were gaining in popularity when the regular source of water they depended upon dried up.

Prof Trevor Hancock - his students
never include
cars when visioning cities of the future.

Horse water troughs had become a source of water for the steam car, but a spreading horse disease from water in the troughs saw them emptied leaving the steam cars without easy access to that essential need.

So as the steam car became less convenient, the petrol powered car came to the fore to take a lead it has never relinquished and really been threatened, until now.

With science illustrating unequivocally that vehicles dependent upon fossil fuels are having a seriously negative impact on the world’s weather, or at least in terms of the “Goldilocks-like” conditions in which humans have thrived, serious moves are afoot to re-power our cars.

The carbon powered car is, little by little, being replaced by electric cars, initially with great success from newcomer, Tesla and now some of the major manufacturers are joining the rush to go electric, the latest being Porsche.

Porsche, which is part of the gigantic Volkswagen Group (also owns: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, Škoda and of course Volkswagen itself), is throwing its hat into the electric car ring. Or at least, they say that they will "within the next 5 years."

Read the Treehugger story about what is happening at Porsche - “Porsche goes after Tesla with the 600hp Mission E electric car”.

All the excitement and hype about the electric car is misplaced.

Private cars, electric or otherwise, are rooted in the energy and resource rich 20^th Century, but the 21^st Century will see that situation reversed when the emphasis will shift from private to public and human movement will be by mass transit, rather than privately owned individual vehicles servicing just one or two people.

Beyond the car itself, the public purse is plundered without hesitation, or guilt, to fund and build an infrastructure to support private enterprise; an enterprise that is one of the key determinants in the deterioration of Earth’s atmosphere.

We should step back from privately owned motor vehicles of whatever shape and form, or whatever powers them, and through fresh eyes look at completely different ways of moving people.

Interestingly, only this week, the Professor in Public Health from Canada’s University of Victoria, Trevor Hancock, said that when his students were asked to create a “visionary image” of a city of the future, motors cars were not included, electric or otherwise.

-      Robert McLean.