Thanks to cheap flights, online ticketing, increased car sales and the aspirations of the developing world, humans are traveling more than ever before.

In the UK in the past 20 years, road traffic has risen by 18.5 per cent, rail journeys by 80 per cent, and air passengers by over 100 per cent. The expansion of affordable, reliable and rapid transport is widely seen as crucial to economic growth and personal freedom. But instead of this increased flow of humanity being seen as a positive advance in personal mobility, it is regularly referred to as a potential problem. Why, when there are so many exciting opportunities opening up?

Milton Keynes will test driverless pods from 2015, while Google and others are finally offering the possibility of safer and smarter autonomous. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk has proposed superfast travel via trains in tubes in near-vacuum that could make the trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco in under an hour. And commercial, private space flight is on the cusp of reality, through firms like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, with plans already being drawn up for a UK spaceport. Will greater technical autonomy result in fewer accidents or, if there is a more blasé attitude to safety, will accidents rise? Will faster speeds be welcomed or will we romantically long for the joys of slow travel?

Skepticism about travel is also a serious barrier. At the same time as new means of travel are being created, Heathrow strains under the arguments for and against another runway. Environmentalists argue that we should aim to travel less, not more, with some suggesting that high-speed internet connections could allow us to conduct more and more business virtually and far more efficiently. Is this the techno futurism that Alvin Toffler envisaged as a ‘quantum leap forward’, something that now seems to challenge our dated reliance on old-fashioned cars, railways and powered flight?

Can innovative new technologies allow us to have it all - cheap, fast, low-carbon, speedy, convenient travel for everyone? Which technologies will succeed and which will lead us into a dead end? Is the novelty of travel simply wearing off; have we fallen out of love with the daily commute, the railway buffet car or the crowded departure lounge? Should we instead plan for a low-travel future with homes and businesses close to each other and longer trips replaced by teleconferencing? Surely, isn’t it simple common sense that reducing the need to travel is a good thing?

Watch the debate: