Transport Infrastructures - Between Utopias and Sci-Fi. LIFTING passengers on elevated sidewalks or SHOOTING them below the ground?

For the past two centuries many architects and planners dealing with transport issues, have tried to offer solutions based on spatial differentiation of transportation means and on infrastructural layering, separating the realm for cars, public transportation and pedestrians. Some of the most innovative ideas often appear to be reflected in science fiction books and movies, and even in comics and paintings. Just like Utopian ideas inspired and influenced planning practices in the late 19th and in the 20th century, sci-fi movies, comics and books seem to have predicted many of the new infrastructural innovations. It is hard to determine who was the first to inject the new ideas: whether it was fiction who imagined innovative solutions to overcome cities’ struggles, or, vice versa, architects, planners and theorists elaborated and materialized the fantasies imagined by sci-fi writers and sketched by artists. By looking back at some of the most revealing examples of transport solutions proposed by both planners and architects or writers and artists, this article tries to explore these reciprocities, starting from their common desire to give an original answer to the enduring problem of growing cities and traffic.