Are we on track to adapt our transportation infrastructure with our growing needs by 2050?
The model of the 20th century - what we call the “Predict Provide Paradigm”, where urban planners would predict the amount of vehicle infrastructure, provide them, and segregate traffic - is no longer sustainable. This model only served to incentivize the mass adoption of private vehicles by the public at large, which then became self-reinforcing and required ever-more expansion.
The 21st century, by contrast, has already seen the rise of Mega Cities - with populations of over 10 million citizens. Such urban density renders the use of private vehicles impossible. Even the nascent development of electric and autonomous vehicles does not solve this issue; carbon emissions may be reduced, but congestion would still remain prohibitively high. The only way to move citizens at this scale is through the use of public transportation. Cities such as Shanghai, which has a population of 26 million people, would literally not function without a robust public transportation system. With 20-30 billion transit rides per day globally, this trend will only increase.