VIRTUAL TOMORROWS: A PREDICTION MADE WITH 20/20 FORESIGHT

This article speculates on how severe traffic congestion and air pollution problems may be handled in Edge City, USA, in the year 2020. The article predicts how public debate, which by law must include an open interactive public meeting on the Internet, might progress. A travel forum brings people together in a planning center, but also lets them participate online. Participants are able to view a holograph tabletop landscape model, which is reproduced as a virtual reality model, surfable with Web browsers. The landscape draws spatial information from data collectors linked in a high-speed network. Overlay maps produced by sophisticated computer systems, help participants make decisions about alternative futures. A coalition of environmental groups has built a virtual reality model of the river valleys as part of its effort to rally opposition to a road proposal. Environmental and infrastructure models predict the effects of change. In the middle of the proceedings, a radical environmentalist hacker disrupts the pro-road economist's presentation with an anti-industrial message. The cyberworld erupts in multiple explosions, leaving a rubble of concrete and steel. The rogue display flickers out as the planning center's security system kicks in and ejects the intruder. Backup systems restore the business presentation and the economist continues. In the end, the most favored alternative involves some improvements to existing intersections and a greatly enhanced, though heavily subsidized, bus system. After 6 hours, the forum ends, with the travel planning director observing that the forums have become like the musing of a group mind.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1762461
• Corporate Authors:

  American Planning Association

  122 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 1500
  Chicago, IL  United States  60603-6107
• Authors:
  • McKenzie, S
• Publication Date: 1999-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos;
• Pagination: p. 14-18
• Serial:
  • Planning
  • Volume: 65
  • Issue Number: 7
  • Publisher: American Planning Association
  • ISSN: 0001-2610
  • Serial URL: http://www.planning.org

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Decision making; Digital maps; Forecasting; Future; Internet; Land use models; Landscape design; Meetings; Public opinion; Public participation; Traffic models; Transportation planning; Virtual reality
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00778202
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 21 1999 12:00AM