Farther, faster? Not anymore

Progress in transportation is stalling as technology lags and suburban sprawl ties things up.

The air traffic control system “is based on 1950s architecture. It was cutting-edge during the era of Ozzie and Harriet, but not today,” James C. May, president of the Air Transport Association of America, told Congress last month.

“Airways, unfortunately, increasingly resemble many highways – they have become saturated,” May said. “What we have come to realize is that the ground-based system that supports point-to-point airways cannot produce substantial new capacity. We have no choice but to introduce new technology to generate needed capacity.”

Other countries have moved to satellite-based, digital air traffic control systems. Fiji did so a decade ago. Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Switzerland and the Britain are doing so now.

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration hopes to spend $10 billion during the next 10 years to plan and begin to put in place a satellite system, NextGen (Next Generation Air Transportation System Integrated National Plan).

For railroads, within cities and between cities, the basic technology has changed little in a century, and times for many trips, even in densely populated Northeast cities such as Philadelphia, have increased.

The car promoted suburban growth, as commuters found it as convenient to drive from a new suburb as they once found it to walk or ride a shorter distance. So as people were willing to move farther from work, land-use issues became transportation issues, too.

In the meantime, Weinberger said, people persist in two long-standing behaviors: a desire to move faster, and an expectation for a technological solution.

Philadelphia Inquirer