Towards Sustainable Road Transport

Chapter 2

Drivers for Change

Abstract

The road transport scene is changing rapidly under the stimulus of new vehicle and engine technology, as well as being driven by political and socio-economic pressures in the world at large. The latter include the growth in world population, the spread of car ownership from the developed to the developing world, environmental legislation, and concerns over the availability of transport fuels in sufficient quantities to meet projected global demand. These issues are discussed in this Chapter.

Keywords

World population; Vehicle ownership; Oil reserves; Climate change; Clean energy vectors

2.1. Challenges for new-generation road vehicles

Certain broad trends may be identified in the way that the world has developed ...