Bill Reinert's White Paper

All the 2006 Principal Voices are submitting a White Paper to the Web site, explaining their views at length.

Bill Reinert, national manager of advanced technologies for Toyota USA, discusses how urbanization can bring traffic gridlock and pollution and how cars of the future could help solve this by being emission-free -- and even able to drive and park automatically.

As I look out of my office window at Toyota's headquarters in Torrance, California, I see past the 405 Freeway to the distant skyscrapers of Los Angeles; a constant reminder of the challenges we face as we try to integrate ever-increasing fleets of vehicles into rapidly expanding urban areas.

The 405 is famous for being one of the most congested roadways on the planet. Every day, a mix of single-passenger commuter vehicles take to this road along with trucks supplying "just-in-time shipments" and the larger tractor trailers that serve the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, economic engines for all of Southern California.

Urban density has all but foreclosed on the idea of expanding the Los Angeles freeway system. There is no undeveloped land left and any freeway expansion project must, of necessity, disrupt vast segments of existing communities. Even if we could build more freeways, backfill -- the process whereby commuters seek quicker routes -- would eliminate any congestion relief provided by new roadways within a couple of years.

The result is gridlock and the costs are enormous. Despite recent widening projects and additional car-pool lanes, the 405 is at a near standstill every working day from the very early morning until well into the evening. The emissions from the stranded vehicles get trapped against the mountains by the prevailing winds, shrouding the entire Los Angeles Basin with smog.

The 405 is just one freeway in one large city. Throughout the world, this dance plays out daily. From region to region, the tune may vary, reflecting various choices in transportation and economics, but the results are always the same. Urbanization is increasing at unimaginable rates. Populations are demanding greater access to individual transport and our ability to respond within economic constraints is diminishing.

Although we can't build our way out using traditional approaches, by combining ideas developed by the brightest minds in the automotive industry, in urban design and in transportation planning, we can see the pieces of what can eventually be woven into a whole cloth. While our current approaches are not working, in some areas we can see the beginnings of what an integrated answer might be:

In Tokyo, we see both the benefits of electrified local and regional rail-transit systems and the results of strict diesel-fuel and engine-technology regulations. In the Galapagos Islands, we learn how transportation cooperatives share a single vehicle with several households. We can also benefit from examining London's experiences with city center entrance fees for individual cars and trucks.

Within the automotive industry, we are investigating how zero- and near-zero-emissions strategies such as fuel cells and battery electric propulsion might be incorporated into urban environments. Beyond this, we could look at ways that natural extensions of today's luxury options, such as GPS (global positioning systems) and adaptive cruise control, might be linked to transportation networks, enabling an increase in the carrying capacity of our existing roadways.

Eventually, we may want to re-think the whole concept of the personal car and how it fits in tomorrow's cities. Cars using electric propulsion provided from batteries or fuel cells offer more than zero emissions, they also promise the advantage of complete by-wire operation.

Long used on airplanes, by-wire operation eliminates the mechanical connections to the brakes, steering and throttle. With these advances we could design a car that can drive sideways and automatically park in a parking space exactly the same size as the car. Eventually, with these approaches, we could double the parking capacity that currently exists in major cities.

None of these concepts, no matter how successful or brilliant, can work in every case or solve every problem. Even zero-emissions vehicles don't address gridlock, and the mass transit that works so well in high-density cities like San Francisco and Washington, D.C. isn't applicable to the sprawl-dominated markets of Los Angeles or Phoenix. No single solution or range of solutions will be successful without the cooperation and joint efforts of urban designers and transportation planners. Most importantly, we must engage a willing and informed population. The costs of the solutions will be enormous; the costs of inaction are far greater.

What do you think?

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Mr. Reinert, you have the power to bring back the RAV4 EVs. Why did Toyota cease the development of these wonderful cars? Some of these cars have now exceeded 200K miles on their original NiMH battery pack. I wonder why there is so much resistance to release BEVs or even PHEVs? There is a big market out there for these wonderful vehicles. I also wonder how much better the model 2008 RAV4 EV would be if Toyota had not killed it back in 2003...

1. How about encouraging people to work within a 10km radius of where they live?
2. Designing cities for easy access to public transport (in L.A. the car companies bought up ALL the bus companies so that they could sell more cars. Thus you get what you pay for).

I seriously think that the main cause of all our problems is population, and there's nothing much we can do to cut that down. We can only hope and live in a way that at least there is some population control to reduce all the problems.

Isn't there any way to educate people about sustainable development? Why doesn't the media take it up as a MAJOR issue and make it their prime objective to inform people about the disastrous effects in the future of our current lifestyles? I wish i could do more than just ask these questions.

It comes as a total coincidence that last night my wife and I saw Chris Paine's excellent documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car", and today I stumbled upon this web site.

I was impressed by Mr Reinert's White Paper and will optimistically watch for developments by Toyota and others. As an owner of a Prius, with which I am delighted, I can fully relate to those EV1 owners whose cars were rounded up and destroyed.

We absolutely need clean cars, preferably completely non-polluting, for the mass of commuters out there. The freedom and convenience of personal cars is a modern, civilized wonder that I, for one, would never give up in favor of mass transit, no matter how efficient the system. But mass transit is a fine alternative for those who prefer it, and it should be encouraged.

I found your story to be most interesting, yet so challenging.

I liked your description of the view outside your office window while you observe the freeways filled with traffic, which causes gridlock and pollution.

If I witnessed that same view I would feel the same way, since I tend to be an individual who is concerned about the environment and it's value.

I do hope you will be able to engage a willing and informed population, but I believe it will be a long process, certainly nothing that will happen overnight. Best of luck.

Question for Mr Reinert re the three cylinder Caterpillar diesel engine in the Avensis in Germany.

Why or when can it be available in Australia? I know it is an extremely fuel-efficient engine. I would like your opinion. Thank you.

Good news.

It seems as if what we're shooting for with this talk of new transportation devices is a system that is both socially and ecologically sustainable.

The former issue, social sustainability, is a little more difficult to predict or understand.

The goal is a city filled with people who know where their private areas are and where their public areas are, a people who enjoy spending time in both areas and a people who might be interested in letting the lines between public and private become hazy at times for the good of the whole.

Regarding ecological sustainability, the goal is that the transportation devices we employ would use far less of our natural resources, or that the resources that are used could be recycled over time.

Right now, both social and ecological sustainability are things we are working after. These are issues that Mr Reinert has taken up here in his White Paper.

The long-standing issue is as follows: We know what this world could look like were we able to control it, but the tough part is getting people to really jump on board.

As humans, we tend to be very immediate-minded. Hence, convenience is of great worth to us. So, we should like to provide transportation alternatives that are more convenient for the city's populations.

Thus, we would need to create more routes for rail transit throughout a city. Of course, that takes a lot of money, money that only the people can provide. So, as many cities have attempted, Minneapolis included, a few routes have been laid with the hope of convincing the citizens of how potentially convenient and pleasurable rail travel can be. It seems to be working alright.

Personally, I don't believe that "better", lower-emission cars are the best option. Entrenched within the notion of car-ownership is the idea of absolute convenience -- or, absolute freedom -- which is first of all impossible, and second of all, a reason for the rising privatization of our United States landscape.

The most liberating life is one that still has its constraints, therefore the thought that we might obtain absolute convenience/freedom with a car, which promises as few constraints as possible, is really quite silly.

We know by now that what freedom the automobile has obtained for us has in many ways been quelled by the upsurge of congestion throughout our freeway systems. As to the privatization that car-ownership engenders, the more we can do to bring people in contact with other people in awkward public situations, the better.

We have been rightly accused of having become a dreadfully individualist society. I am both a victim and a culprit when it comes to that accusation, but I do believe that we can grow out of this trend.

I don't believe that we as humans were made to be little individuals claiming our territories. We really should come to know our neighbors, and I believe that rail transit can do that.

It simply will require time and more word of mouth encouragement that we don't have to use our cars.

Here's to a better urban landscape!