Cool New Low-CO2 Transportation Video Released

One thing that frustrates me is that our low-carbon future is too-often depicted with slick architectural renderings that are designed to show how a certain infill development will make the world a better place. They’re populated with bus stops and stick figures on bicycles, but they don’t often adequately convey the potential flavor of a neighborhood, what it’s like to live there, how people will do things differently.

We have simple and powerful visualization tools out there. We need to be using them to show citizens what life might be like were we to embrace a range of better-living best practices and policies. And we don’t need any fancy CGI rendering to do the job.

America 2050—a nonprofit dedicated improving America’s infrastructure to address population growth and anticipated energy constraints—has produced a nice little 3:47 video called Journey to Detroit that is a pleasure to watch; it does all of this and more. Here’s the gist:

Sometime in the not too distant future, John wakes up in suburban Chicago on a Saturday morning and heads to a White Sox game…in Detroit. Join him on a 300 mile journey to Detroit’s Comerica Park as he experiences the transportation options of the future: a neighborhood electric car share program, smart phone ticketing, high-speed rail, and connecting light rail.

If you’re interested in a little more background on high-speed rail, after you’ve watched this, check out Superfast Bullet Trains Are Finally Coming to the US, the package in Wired magazine I put together with Rachel Swaby.