Back home at my parents' house I browsed some old books to read over the Christmas hols, picking up Asimov’s Prelude to Foundation to see what enthused my teenage self. I hadn’t realised at the time how hopeful it is about the future: only 30k years or so to go until…
Walking is the best form of short-distance transportation. It’s the most convenient, the cheapest and the most healthful. Countless years of technological advance has not changed that.
or
…private vehicles are rare… Their use is not really necessary since we have Expressways and for shorter distances moving corridors. For still shorter distances, we have our legs.
As usual, though, they needed to create a city-planet to do it (Trantor here, without the simple flying repulsor-tech of Star Wars' Coruscant)
Having said that, gravitic shafts are an early attempt at anti-gravity lift, the lack of development of which is a clear early indicator of the beginning of the decline of the Galactic Empire
