Well, interesting choice, but I'm more into teleportation.
Seriously, I strongly believe that ultralight airplanes, together with GPS technology and some robotics will replace cars. I imagine we are like people were 100 years ago, in 1907: thinking that locomotives will transport people forever, not taking in account the automobile, just because the sheer size of the railroad network.
So, to answer your question, tomislav: I prefer ultralight airplanes, not simply "flying cars". An airplane, conditioned to serve a dual purpose, I imagine, would be highly inefficient, both as a car and as an airplane.
Few people know that until Henry Ford developed the assembly line AND the steel-vanadium alloy was developed, cars were built as ultralights are build today: by hand, one by one. A car was as expensive in 1907 as an ultralight is nowadays.
We really NEED the development of new, cheap composites, that can be used to build ultralight airplanes "en masse". That day, I imagine, cars will be obsolete, first because of the high cost of infrastructure compared with the cost of airways, and second, because of the speed on long distances. Even today, ultralights represent 20% of the aircrafts in "affluent" countries, according to Wikipedia.
On cities (well, let me dream a little) we could use only urban transportation. Have you read "Caves of Steel" by Asimov? There you will find a couple of good ideas about how to transport people quickly and efficiently.
I'm particularly fond of autogiros, not because they were invented by a spaniard (not at all!
) but because they don't stall easily. They seem to me safer and easier to operate.
Third successful autogiro by Juan de la Cierva: La Cierva C-6
If you want to dream a little, why don't you check here?
http://www.ultralightsite.com/
Pick your price range from the list to the right of the page: locate the "Price Range" tag.
There you can pick a Light Sport Aircraft less expensive than a car ( for example, 15.000 to 25.000 U$ seem reasonable to begin with), with around 120 mph cruising speed (no traffic jams, my friends!). It should give you better mileage than a car and a really short commuting time. It could open the door to really "urban" cars and relegate long distance travel by car to the dustbin of history.
Skylark, made in Czech Republic:
http://www.dovaaircraft.pl/
135 mph cruising, 180 mph top speed, 5 gallons per hour at cruising speed, 2 passengers, IFR option, take off and landing 500 feet runway, 500 pounds payload. There is a 4 passenger version. I could not find the price, sorry, the Dova Aircraft site seems to be down.
) article on the subject, you can read here:
Besides, it's a "cool" experiment in its own right. Quite literally, in fact.) ... :
