Flying cars in The Jetsons and Back to the Future, or Star Trek's spaceships and teleportation, may have captured the imagination decades ago, but most current methods of transport have been around a long time. Railways were being rolled out rapidly from the 1830s, while the commercial breakthroughs in petrol and diesel engines date to 1876 and 1892 respectively. Even the jet engine that made mass aviation possible can be traced back to Frank Whittle's first patent in 1932.

Despite decades of futuristic predictions, modern transport wouldn't look all that different to someone from the 1950s – certainly not compared to communications or entertainment. So why has there been so little recent innovation in transport? And will the latest batch of proposed driverless cars,levitating trains and electric aircraft actually make a serious breakthrough?

In part, there hasn't been a revolution because existing technologies have been able to evolve. Engines have become more efficient, fuel is higher quality, we have lighter materials, more aerodynamic designs and better brakes that mean vehicles can operate safely closer together. However, eventually there will be a limit to these evolutions.

In any event, transport is not just about technology. It is also about people – and people don't always like change. We may be locked in to current technology, partly due to habit but also due to economics.