You have seen flying cars in shows like the Jetsons, but could they be the future of public transportation in America?
One district in Illinois tried out hydrogen fuel cell buses. Researchers at MIT are working on an autonomous bike sharing program. Hyperloop is testing trains that carry passengers through a vacuum tube.
Experts aren't so sure about the practicality of these options.
Ryan Harris, a transit planning manager at STV in New York, said on the podcast that I will give my professional opinion on hyperloop and flying Ubers, and even to some degree, self-driving cars are likely well into the future. It looks flashy and it looks great, but probably not realistic. Even though flying cars may be a distant reality, that doesn't mean lawmakers and businesses aren't trying to make advancements in public transit.
In November, Congress passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that allocates $108 billion for transit. A lot of the money will go towards repairing or replacing transportation systems that have been failing for a long time.
Legislators like Congressman Peter DeFazio D-OR, one of the architects of the bill, say climate change is a key factor in public transportation innovation.
There are going to be provisions in the bill that make states measure their greenhouse gas reductions and they are going to condition grants on things that deal with equity, greenhouse gas reductions, according to DeFazio on this week's Best New Ideas in Money podcast.
Climate change isn't the only priority for the future of public transportation. Experts say the pandemic has made a huge change in who uses public transit and how they do so.
Transit is at an existential crossroads right now, having lost so much of its ridership due to the Pandemic that likely won't return to the way it was before, said Ryan Harris, a transit planning manager with engineering firm STV in New York. It doesn't necessarily mean that transit is a dead industry. Learn more in this week s podcast.