JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post  History of the Future

There were several articles over three different issues of Popular Mechanics Magazine that looked at different aspects of future transportation, and one of the interesting side bits is that the cover illustration for two of the issues incorporated designs that appeared elsewhere that year.  In any event the overriding issue is that in the unspecified future that railroads will have to be improved to handle everything that will come to be, while aviation may have to wait for the invention of anti-gravity-something.  

The first image is a small detail in the article by Walter Dorwin Teague  (an industrial design pioneer in league with Norman Bel Geddes, and Raymond Loewy) in his “Plannig the World of Tomorrow”, and is actually an elevation of the larger central view:

Here highways are transformed to accommodate two central lanes for 200 mph engineerless trains, while the lanes next to them are to handle freight, and with an outer lane for commuter/pleasure traffic. Interestingly the small car detail appears on the cover of a Popular Mechanics issue, looking pretty much to form, and very vibrantly red placed against a very non-descript and featureless background.  The trains that appear in the Teague article also appear on the cover the subsequent issue, where it is presented in a luxurious and speedy red-orange.