> Adapt now or face transportation crisis
Adapt now or face transportation crisis
Contact:
Anthony Perl, 778.782.7887, aperl@sfu.ca
Susan Jamieson McLarnon, PAMR, 778.782.5074/5151, jamieson@sfu.ca
Anthony Perl, 778.782.7887, aperl@sfu.ca
Susan Jamieson McLarnon, PAMR, 778.782.5074/5151, jamieson@sfu.ca
March 17, 2008
In the time it took to interview SFU political scientist Anthony Perl
about his recently released book on sustainable transport, the price of
crude oil rose 30 cents – a powerful symbol of the looming energy
crisis that he says may hit as early as 2012. Co-authored with
Toronto-based policy consultant Richard Gilbert, Transport
Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil provides a
sobering look at the environmental and economic problems associated
with our transportation system’s dependence on cheap oil.
Perl, the director of SFU’s Urban Studies program, has worked in transport policy for much of his career. He says most people take transportation infrastructure for granted. “As long as the highways are open and things are moving, they tend to assume everything is fine.”
Perl and Gilbert argue that everything is not fine. With current geological models predicting that oil production will decline sharply within the next five years, they say we need to curb our dependence on oil to avoid shortages that could cripple our economy and lead to widespread geo-political conflict.
In their book, they endorse electricity as the solution. “Electricity isn’t an energy source, it’s an energy carrier, so you can put different things into the electric grid and make adaptations down the road,” says Perl.
They advocate more electric buses and cars, and electric trains for transporting people and goods over longer distances. They also recommend halting infrastructure projects premised on continued access to cheap oil-based energy.
“Every airport that we expand, every highway that we build based on the assumption that we’re still going to have cheap oil 10 years from now, is going to make it harder for us to adapt later on,” says Perl.
The challenges facing transportation policy makers in the coming years are daunting, but Perl and Gilbert say viable solutions do exist. “We tried to make it a hopeful book, to show that this can be done and explain how to do it,” says Perl. “There certainly is still time to make the kinds of changes we talk about in the book, but it has to start now.”
Their book is available at the SFU Bookstore and through their website at www.transportrevolutions.info. For more information: aperl@sfu.ca.
Perl, the director of SFU’s Urban Studies program, has worked in transport policy for much of his career. He says most people take transportation infrastructure for granted. “As long as the highways are open and things are moving, they tend to assume everything is fine.”
Perl and Gilbert argue that everything is not fine. With current geological models predicting that oil production will decline sharply within the next five years, they say we need to curb our dependence on oil to avoid shortages that could cripple our economy and lead to widespread geo-political conflict.
In their book, they endorse electricity as the solution. “Electricity isn’t an energy source, it’s an energy carrier, so you can put different things into the electric grid and make adaptations down the road,” says Perl.
They advocate more electric buses and cars, and electric trains for transporting people and goods over longer distances. They also recommend halting infrastructure projects premised on continued access to cheap oil-based energy.
“Every airport that we expand, every highway that we build based on the assumption that we’re still going to have cheap oil 10 years from now, is going to make it harder for us to adapt later on,” says Perl.
The challenges facing transportation policy makers in the coming years are daunting, but Perl and Gilbert say viable solutions do exist. “We tried to make it a hopeful book, to show that this can be done and explain how to do it,” says Perl. “There certainly is still time to make the kinds of changes we talk about in the book, but it has to start now.”
Their book is available at the SFU Bookstore and through their website at www.transportrevolutions.info. For more information: aperl@sfu.ca.