Chapter 95
Transportation
Transportation systems, like all technological systems, hold great promise for future prosperity, and also harbor great risks for the future. They facilitate cultural and economic exchange, specialization of production, access to opportunities for education, employment, worship, shopping and social interaction. Ease of transportation is a hallmark of advanced societies.
Yet transportation systems also consume scarce fossil fuels, produce greenhouse gases, fragment habitat, and act as vectors for disease and invasive species. Social and economic interaction facilitated by transportation can lead to erosion of cultural identity and to cultural homogenization.
Today efficient movement of people and goods is a key to prosperity and social well-being. Yet expansion of the benefits of affordable and reliable transportation services to a broader spectrum of global society also requires careful consideration of social, economic and environmental impacts.
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