Future Historians

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===== Transportation =====

Free public transportation had already been put into place in the period of the planetary revolution, and that had happened in the most spontaneous manner. After a series of official labor strikes, the transport workers had understood that the only people they were seriously inconveniencing were other workers –  depriving them of necessary trains, buses, subways to get to work. On the other hand, management, government and media were warning the public against strikers who “thought only of themselves.”

So, from general meeting to general meeting, and to the scandal of the union officials, the word went out: “Strike on the sale of transport tickets!” By blocking the ticket windows while they were reestablishing service, the workers were depriving the bosses of revenue and attracting the sympathy of travellers. That worked so well that after the revolution, cards, tickets and tokens had become so rare that children were collecting and trading these relics of pre-history.

In the domain of inter-urban transport, trains were more and more replacing automobiles, with gas and diesel fuel now shunned as expensive, dangerous and pollutant. International travel and trade was conducted via great sailing vessels with computerised navigational and sail-setting systems capable of carrying many passengers and  great quantities of materials at speeds up to 25 knots with zero consuption of fuel. It was every boy and girl’s dream to work out on the ocean as a sailor on these swift, silent strong, ships (also well-known for partying). 

In countries in the South, light planes were linking communities far from highways and connecting them to villages where you could find markets, doctors, schools. But soon they were replaced by solar-powered, helium-filled, dirigibles capable of carrying huge loads for great distances at a speed of over 150 kilometers per hour and of landing in small open spaces.

In rich countries with established super-highways and suburban communities, train tracks were constructed on the surface of highways. Most of the freight that formerly went by diesel trucks now circulated via electric trains energized by solar electricity. A few lanes were left for traffic of the few remaining bus, truck, taxi, and rental cars (most of them gas-electric) and for the handicapped. Each exit had its own train depot, where local buses and taxis left and arrived. Each depot had its café, newspaper stand and free stand for bicycles and some vans and cars (for a price). Around the stations, there were outdoor markets where travelers could get bread, fruit, vegetables and dozens of other products before going home. Meanwhile, the existing 19th century rail infrastructures, long neglected were revitalized, but not for freight (which in the U.S. had the right of way over passenger trains), mainly for passengers, who enjoyed going from center-city to center-city.

[[markets|Markets]]
Future Historians

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