Future of Sustainable Transportation

Waterways were among the original highways. For high weight and/or high volume cargoes they are still by far the most efficient when calculated at a $$ / ton-mile.

The idea was that factories, stores, etc. could take advantage of decreased delivery times and increased reliability to save money on inventory, warehousing, etc. The problem is this is a very inefficient delivery model.

Ocean shippers are rediscovering the Wind. Not just with sails but with turbo sails, sail generators, etc.

We've had steam automobiles before. We can build nuclear fission devices that fit in a laundry basket. These "atomic autos" would run for decades. Add on board energy re-generation and it would ALMOST be a closed energy loop.

But let's NOT burn grain (FOOD!) for fuel. But there is lots of other biomass that can be converted into a variety of alcohol based fuels. We could all be driving our own "White Lightning" sedans. Grow Your Gas.

Constant velocity motion machines consume less energy both short and long term than stop and go. Think of highway gas mileage vs. town driving. This could be some sort of cable car train that never stops. . A series of moving walkways. Or similar.