January 7, 2009 lecture by Lee Schipper for the Woods Energy Seminar. In his talk “When the Rubber Hits the Road: The Real Story on Fuel Economy in the US and other Developed Countries, with Implications for Developing Asia,” Schipper discusses better and more realistic fuel economy options in the US and other industrialized nations.Lee Schipper is a Senior Research Engineer at the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford University.

His discussion on solutions covers the main areas for improved fuel efficiency and how the difficult areas of transport policy and urban design usually get ignored. Until these are properly addressed vehicle use will only expand in undesirable ways causing gridlock in our cities and further dependence on oil. Technology and pricing can only go so far in the quest for a sustainable transport model.