Future of London Transport 2020 and Beyond

So, you’re a Londoner. You feel a social responsibility to educate yourself on the various and ever-changing landscapes of your city. Well, there are 20 or so students from the Royal College of Art who are conceptualising how central London will look in 2020, so you probably best read on.

Last Monday evening began with a small interval at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. A room was lined with posters outlining campaigns for public transportation vehicles in the future. I was full of questions: ‘How the fuck….?’, ‘Isn’t that just going to get nicked?’, ‘Where are the matter transporters?’

OK, we’re not there yet, but what I would encounter in the ensuing presentations would be only marginally less impressive, thankfully rooted in the real world. I took my seat in the small auditorium and waited patiently to be told about the future.

Five groups took to the stage in turn, outlining entire transportation networks for the entirety of central London. Some ideas included moving walkways down Oxford Street, energy-conserving public bicycles that hang off giant metal trees that sway in the wind and collect energy to power your bike if you wish not to pedal. Induction vehicles (powered by magnets and electricity), single mobility pods that connect together to make road trains, market pods that are constantly on the move, the single brilliant idea that energy can be used as currency to pay your way around the city, powering a Universal Electricity Network.

So for example, you cycle one of these special bikes like a madman until you can’t anymore, the bike has stored the energy you have created, and you can get on to a bus with your bike and pay with energy that helps the bus run. An idea involved carrying a seat with you everywhere, so you always have a place to sit. I didn’t think that would work really…

All of these ideas involved solar energy, wind energy, regenerative wave power for the awesome double-decker power boat, and every type of green energy source known to man. They all agreed that London should be completely free of our conventional automobiles as well. They also included all the state-of-the-art technology regarding information points and internet access everywhere you go, so you are never ever alone. Ever alone. Ever.

There is so much more to write about this. I suppose the only thing I have left to say is that one girl’s idea of simply drilling holes in the ground to vent the hot air out of our beautiful antiquated Tube network is something that can be done today, and would definitely have an energy saving effect, and increase efficiency, and give our noses a bit of a break. Check it out at the London Transport Museum. The art is quite stunning.

London Transport Museum
Covent Garden Piazza
Covent Garden
WC2E 7BB

Tel: 020 7565 7299