Comment from Schneider, Jerry
It seems to me that electrified transportation possibilities are not given nearly enough attention as a future driver of the demand for electricity. Plug-in hybrids are mentioned (barely) but there are many more transportation concepts being developed around the world that will use electricity for propulsion and other requirements. As oil becomes scarcer and most costly, one can reasonably expect the this sector of the economy will grow significantly. A good source of information about these emerging electrified transport systems is available and is updated regularly. It does not focus on electric cars because more and more cars, however green, cannot possibly be the total answer in the future, because of the cost of and restrictions on our ability to build more and more roadway capacity. Instead, the focus is on systems designed to provide high levels of mobility within large urban regions at much lower cost and with high performance attributes. Some attention is also given to innovative, intercity transportation possibilities as well. This extensive website is called Innovative Transportation Technologies and it is based at the University of Washington, in Seattle.
The URL is http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans. The major categories of systems are: Personal Rapid Transit, Dualmode Transportation, Monorails and Maglev systems. Altogether, more than 100 innovative systems are described and illustrated, many with video animations. Links are provided to a large number of websites for more detailed and current information in this dynamic arena.