What will be the dominant form of transportation?

I have two questions. What will be the dominant form of transportation in Seattle in 20 years....?

• And what will Seattle look like in 20 years? Also with this new deal over the Cedar River with the Muckleshoots, will the river, the watershed, and surrounding land be turned over to the tribe? And does this start some kind of a trend where land is turned over to tribes?

• Answer:

  Cars. It's nice and good to wish to see all our transportation turn into something affordable, green and easy. However, short of wishing for a massive war, disease or natural disaster that scrubs mankind off the face of the planet... we will probably still be using cars as our main form of transportation. Cars will remain affordable, liberating, flexible and powerful forms of personal transporation - even if there is a massive jump in energy prices. I myself would like to see greener solutions, but it's tough to convince 51% of the voters to make sacrifices. Under the scenario that energy reaches new highs - let's say $100/barrel. Then we'll have alternative energies like hydrogen, compressed hydrocarbon gasses, ethanol, biodiesel and electric cells that power our cars. It's hard to imagine something that would cause a sea-change in modes of transportation like Henry Ford's model T. Perhaps the advent of cold fusion or teleportation?