Abstract
After the big discontinuity of 1973 the future of transportation has became more heavily dependent on exogenous factors of a demographic, geopolitical and macroeconomic nature which not so long ago could be viewed as so many 'structural certainties'. Such dependence leads to contemplate the 1980's as a uniquely troublesome period to go through. One even fears that economic and social-cultu-ral trends within individual, countries will hinder a satisfacto-ry solution to the foreseeable difficulties. The author recom-mends that transport planning should take into considera-tion severe oil whortage.