Sunday, March 6th
Many Questions come to mind when thinking about traveling. One of them is what will travel be like in the future? Will we be like Samantha on Bewitched, twitch our nose and just "pop" in wherever we want and look fabulous to boot? I have done a bit of snooping into the future to see what luxuries
might be, let's take a look.

What about Personal Flight? Won't these be tricky for picking up a date?
James Bond used a jet pack to escape a French chateau after killing his
enemy Jacques Boiter in Thunderball. The idea of jet packs has been
around for years. The idea was also a hit when a stuntman flew around
on one during the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

You will be able to use the device - roughly the size of two scuba tanks strapped to your back - on short journeys, or perhaps for going shopping. They will be handy for retrieving cats from trees, cleaning hard-to-reach windows and arriving in style at a party. Will it happen?

It's looking increasingly unlikely - despite the fact we have already seen early prototypes in action. It remains difficult to build a cheap, reliable version which has a practical use.

The downsides "Lots of people set their pants on fire and went off in funny directions when they tried them out," says Austin Williams of the independent Transport Research Group. And there's always the issue of whether you really need one. However every gay man and woman will have to own one.

No More Stinky Cabs! Automated Taxi's, an idea that is right on time!
These computer-controlled pods will take you wherever you want along a fixed route, whenever you want to go.

Computer-controlled driverless cabs could soon be in Cardiff. For the price of one person's bus fare, several people can ride at speeds of up to 25mph, with fences and elevated sections used to guard against accidents. There will be little, if any, wait for use of the cabs, which will leave from stations and will be accessed by pre-paid smartcards.

The cabs, which will travel on a 1.5m-wide track, will use 75% less energy per
passenger than a car and 50% less than a bus.
Will it happen? There's a good chance it will. Testing has taken place in Cardiff,
where developers hope to have 160 driverless cabs running by 2006. We have
had a lot of interest from elsewhere in the country," says ULTra chief executive Martin Lowson. He says Corby and Daventry are both looking at the idea, as are Heathrow and East Midlands airports.

The downsides Is persuading investors and politicians to back the scheme that could make a mess of streets and who can imagine construction in Chicago? Of course, the possibility of vandalism against the cabs is a concern. Then again they would end up very colorful, I don't see a problem with that. There's also the visual impact of elevated sections and possible disruption installing the tracks.
The idea: Safe, environmentally friendly cars
Cars of the future will do far less damage to the environment and will be equipped
with futuristic safety devices to minimize the number of accidents and deaths.
Engines could be powered by a rubbish-fuelled reactor - to make use of all the
waste we produce. Alternatively, petrol may be replaced by fuel cells which separate hydrogen from oxygen in water.

Rounder and softer vehicles will appear as safety laws shape vehicle design. They will have sensors to detect pedestrians and other cars and will have air cushions inside and out. They may also run along invisible tracks, via satellite technology. Traffic flow could even be controlled with vehicles "talking" to each other to regulate flow - meaning the end of traffic jams. Imagine that in Chicago! That would be the future.