A groundbreaking study of public transportation in the Gilded Age and its place in the emerging American city

Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight without Oil sets out the challenges to our growing dependence on transport fuelled by low-priced oil. These challenges include an early peak in world oil production and profound climate change resulting in part from oil use. It proposes responses to ensure effective, secure movement of people and goods in ways that make the best use of renewable sources of energy while minimizing environmental impacts.Transport Revolutions synthesizes engineering, economics, environment, organization, policy and technology, and draws extensively on current data to present important conclusions. The authors argue that land transport in the first half of the 21st century will feature at least two revolutions. One will involve the use of electric drives rather than internal combustion engines. Another will involve powering many of these drives directly from the electric grid - as trains and trolley buses are powered today - rather than from on-board fuel. They go on to discuss marine transport, whose future is less clear, and aviation, which could see the most dramatic breaks from current practice.With its expert analysis of the politics and business of transport, Transport Revolutions is essential reading for professionals and students in transport, energy, town planning and public policy.

For more than a century trolley buses have been providing transportation in towns and cities throughout the world. The trolley bus offered several advantages over other vehicles, primarily quiet operation, quick acceleration from a standing start, hill-climbing ability and a long life span. During the 1950s and 1960s, many trolley bus systems were abandoned. The oil crisis of the 1970s marked a turning point, and the number of trolley bus systems in the world has risen steadily since. Take a trip around the world to see the various styles and systems of trolley buses. This Photo Gallery includes many past and present trolley bus systems from North & South America, Europe, Russia, Asia, and Africa. You'll learn the differences in equipment built over time, who the main manufacturers of Trolley Buses were in these countries and much more.