@Monty: Fuck 'em, it looks good on ya.

ZeeBeeEss

they gotta make it so the tracks elevation gradually descends... and at the end have some kinda winch pull it to the higher starting point...

urbanturban666

I would totally use one of those.

cbandes

@ps61318: I think Asimov did it in 1954 before Niven, but it's been done by others too.

[en.wikipedia.org]

The concept of a megalopolis based on high-speed walkways is common in science fiction. The first works set in such a location are A Story of the Days To Come (1897) and When The Sleeper Wakes (1899) (also republished as The Sleeper Awakes) written by H. G. Wells, which take place in a future London. Thirty years later, the silent film Metropolis (1927) depicted several scenes showing moving sidewalks and escalators between skyscrapers at high levels. Later The Roads Must Roll (1940), written by Robert A. Heinlein, depicts the risk of a transportation strike in a society based on similar-speed sidewalks. The novel is part of the Future History saga, and takes place in 1976. Isaac Asimov, in the novel The Caves of Steel (1954) and its sequels in the Robot Series, uses similar enormous underground cities with a similar sidewalk system. The period described is about the year 3000.

In each of these cases there is a massive network of parallel moving belts, the inner ones faster. Passengers are screened from wind, and there are chairs and even shops on the belt. In the Heinlein work the fast lane runs at 180 km/h, and the first "mechanical road" was built in 1960 between Cincinnati and Cleveland. The relative speed of two adjacent belts is an unrealistic 20 km/h (in the book the fast lane stops, and the second lane keeps running at 160 km/h). In the Wells and Asimov works there are more steps in the speed scale and the speeds are less extreme.

bandit

@jarque: Single best post EVAR!

drtaru

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: I'm such a fool! D:

Griffehpoo

We've already implemented something similar to this in my community. Instead of pods we have pedal-powered personal transportation vehicles (PPPTVs)commonly known as bicycles. To circumvent the inherently limiting properties and costs of a monorail system we've harnessed the power of a proprietary compound consisting of a titanium oxide pigment bonded to an acrylic/glass bead hybrid substrate which is applied to existing roadways to designate what is known, in layman's terms, as a bike lane.

jarque

I seem to recall proposal for a giant elevated tube system in some major Canadian city for bicycle commuters, now a couple of years ago. The thing that impressed me was the math on how little work the rider would need to do because of the forced air system, combined with the drafting effect of everyone going one direction in a tube.

txpunk

@Griffehpoo: you forgot

MONORAIL!

Mono.....DOH!

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

why would anyone want to use this when they can hop on a bike and do the same thing - and get exactly where they want rather than where a track brings them.

I bike every day and since I leave early and go at a moderate pace I'm not all sweaty when I arrive at work.

Been doing it for 8 years now and love it. Sometimes the simpliest is just simply the best.

jamesdenver

It had better have a passing lane. No way am I getting stuck behind that pod of Mexicans peddling at half speed.

atomx

I heard those things are awfully loud.
They ride as softly as a cloud!
Is there a chance the track may bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend!
What about us brain dead slobs?
You'll be given cushy jobs!
Were you sent here by the devil?
No good man I'm on the level!
The ring broke off my pudding can!
Take my pen knife my good man!
I say its Springfeild's only choice!
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
MONORAIL! MONORAIL! MONORAIL!
But Mainstreet's still all cracked and broken!
Sorry, mom, the mob has spoken!
MONORAIL! MONORAIL! MONORAIL!

Can't believe we made it this far without a single shot at North Haverbrook.

Griffehpoo

@hakubak: And I am not even so high-minded. What if I had Taco Bell or White Castle for lunch? Better be able to crack a window on that capsule, dude.

ps61318

Wow. Where to begin.

Sweat. Yeah. That tops the list.
Tight spaces? Check.
Heights? That too.
What if I pedal slower so I don't have a heart attack? I'd be "that dick" to everyone behind me.
What if I "throw the chain" or whatever? Am I stuck in the plexiglass Pringle can until someone comes along?
What if I get sick? Or have to "go?"
It doesn't come off the rails, so that means I get to sit in the puddle left by the eco-minded-tool who used it before me, right?

Some ass-hat thought this idea was so good that it was worth rendering. I'd recommend we try thinking back INSIDE the box for a while, but that just lends itself to more coffin jokes.

hakubak

It would have to be free for anyone to use it.

taciturnforsale

@bandit: It was Niven in "Oath of Fealty." Don't remember seeing that in Asimov, but I could be wrong.

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: Yep, skeet, that's what I was thinking.

@Monty: I wish they would put in a shower where I work. They pay lipservice to people getting healthy, but if you want to exercise with the office as the endpoint, rotsa ruck. You're gonna stink.

@SneakerFiend: 75 or 100 HP for an electric motor is not small, and your comments about obese people are insensitive. That makes you mean AND ignorant. Yay for you!

ps61318

There are a lot of methods of transportation that would work except for the fact you would get all sweaty and smelly using them (riding a bike to work...jogging...self propelled monorails...etc). Seems to me scientists should get to work on curing body sweat/heat!

Saboth

@DanLar75: "Screw the 'Human Tube', give us the "Suicide Booths"!"

In this, I think they gave us both.

Chromeo is typing this on his iPhone 3G

I think making out on monorails just got a lot harder

comfortablesofa

Does it have AC? Also, I'm afraid of heights.

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

Hell, I don't like going to work now, if you made me bike there I'd go even less!

Log1c

Screw the 'Human Tube', give us the "Suicide Booths"!

DanLar75

Maybe you could use them for sight seeing. You could even design them to go underwater. Of course then they would need to be air tight and I'm guessing it wouldn't take long for them to start smelling pretty bad.

Also, is the track in the picture bent? Not only are you going to have to pedal it, but you'll have to deal with going up and down the wavy track too.

Aoi

@venomous_duck41: yeah but how would he get out?
this concept would be better if the pods had ventilation, because, you know.... people need to breathe

Charging_Mooses

They actually should put this in the US
Maybe we'll get some of those fatasses to lose some weight.
Besides that i think a electric motor would do the trick well. A small electric motor with about 75HP or 100HP powered by solar panels at the train station or at each stop. I mean i'd most definetly wouldn't mind riding in one of these things if there was shade inside it, not as clustered as it looks, and faster or as fast as taking the train. I mean if your feet are hanging like a rollercoaster thats a problem and if you're above the rail thats another problem. As well as how would all of the obese people get on??? or would they have to stick to buses and trains?

SneakerFiend

I think it's a great idea, in a way. It's not really practical, but the idea would cover two things nicely. First, it would make public transport more widespread and fine-grained, reducing or eliminating the need for cars. Second, it would get people off their lazy asses to burn some calories if they hope to have a livelihood.

So, while I really doubt it's feasible, the basic idea is a good one. Personally, though, I'd just ban cars and force cities to build trolleys and multilayered skywalks.

DisposableInterloper

what about fat people?

rimshot515

*aftre loosing his job at a business*
ill show them, im gonna go towards my old work and park that damn thing 30 feet away from the stop, then no one is getting to work!

venomous_duck41

@Chromeo is typing this on his iPhone 3G: In that sort of apocalyptic scenario, wouldn't elevated pedal monorails be simply citywide shooting gallery ducks?

"Full pods! 20 points!"

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

I could this this working in some type of Mad-Max future, where gasoline is rare, and people have to move around the ruins of the city in these types of pods...

And they'd have machine-guns on them...yeeea...that'd be cool

Chromeo is typing this on his iPhone 3G

I'd have some sort of on-rail cooling system.. and also wouldn't that be more work than just biking?

ItsRabid

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: HA HA!

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

It's called "The Schweeb"?!? WTF?

Is that Kiwi for "Dork Capsule"?

bpapa9013

In the picture above, both tracks move in the same direction, suggesting that there is an express track for through-traffic, and a local track for people about to stop.

Still not as good as Asimov's series of moving belts that get faster as you step over to the next ones.

bandit

In America we have a hard enough time getting people to use mass transit or ride bikes without combining them into a single monstrosity. Here in Texas you'd end up with a string of clear coffins hanging over your city, with no good way to remove the corpses.

Gann

So how does it make stops?

"Hey guys we're approaching the next stop and there's someone there."

*slows to a crawl at station*

"OK go!"

*speeds off*

"ASSHOLES!"

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

@lostarchitect: Think about all the stops though.

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

claustrophobia anyone?

Glavan27

looks more like a monofail to me.

AmplifiedHustler

hey, a lot of people bicycle and that gets you sweaty, too. in theory this should be less so because a lot of people share the work...

lostarchitect

Or maybe we just need to change our perception of perspiration? Think of it as moistened love perfume lotion of the gods, and suddenly this transportation becomes a mechanism for creating inner peace and harmony for your entire office.

Then again, I have been telling people this at work when my sweaty ass finally arrives at the office from my bicycle commute, and I don't appear to be convincing anyone.

Monty

Who's going to actually pedal? I'd get in and try and "pretend" to pedal. If everyone does that you never get anywhere.

ramman345

This is what Futurama is like in the ghetto.

robotleawesome

Does it avoid the bad neighborhoods?

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

@Gann: It's Texas... What's the problem?

qbrad

This would work better if instead of sitting in tubes, you dangled upside down with your feet strapped into pedals. A metropolis filled with dangling upside-down commuters pedaling around a vast network of rails, like slowly-moving carcasses on meat hooks, would seriously challenge the Segway for City Of The Future.

frigg

Not a good idea and a waste of money

Somadis

@bandit: Ok, I stand corrected. The "seats and even shops" was cribbed almost verbatim by Niven, if that's the case. Very interesting.

Thanks!

ps61318

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: It's a genuine, bonafide, non-electrified 6-car monorail.

dingus

I dunno. It sounds a lot like communist rail. I just don't want to be the last one dropped off, cuz I can end up carrying the whole thing.

ripfire

wow.... just like on Futurama.... what a stupid bastard.... "I invented the tube transport.... pay no attention to the cartoon show about the future that has it on there.... "

avarice072

Umm. How could someone construct a rail and then NOT attatch a monorail train to it, it boggles the mind.

Maybe these are a genuinely good idea. Wait, you'd be limited to the speed of the people in front of you, and what if there was a jam? That'd suck total shit. No way.

The illest wind

I guess I'm the only one who thinks this is totally RAD.

wezelboy

Does each person have their own capsule that they peddle completely by themselves, or does this work more like one of those bikes that several people can ride? Seems like it would work up even less sweat than biking, though it forces you to go wherever the rail takes you instead of just biking straight to your destination.

andyc52042

So what do you do if some people in the group don't pedal?

Will the fire department come to hoist down "Big Butt" if he causes a traffic jam? or you just pull a release pin and let him drop to the ground?

Too many "ifs"

aec007

@ramman345: Ha, yeah I can see someone waiting to take the next group of pods when you have a really obese guy in line right front of you. Good bet that he would be fake peddling. Hah! fat bastard!

Stearns

The problem is that you would still get behind someone moving slow in the fast lane, but now you also have to power their vehicle too!

Nikkoli

They'd have to be automated for them to even have a chance in hell of ever being approved for city use. All it takes is one jerko who decides to stop for kicks and you get a big traffic jam.

Also, can anyone even thing of a plausible emergency escape system for this?

plastikwaren

This looks very familiar. I seem to recall a cartoon in Whole Earth Review, many years ago, of a fanciful human powered train -maybe it was called VeloRail or something like that- intended as the ultimate Green commuter transport. It looked rather like a Bullet Train with oversized (proportionally) angled wheels and gull-wing doors for the passenger compartments that rode on conventional but narrow-gauge rail lines. In actuality, it was a joke. There was this brilliant staff artist who did a whole series of Rube-Goldberg-Meets-Eco-Tech cartoons showing various not-quite plausible yet almost believable inventions of the Green Future. I wonder if there was ever a compilation of them published... Eric Hunting erichunting@gmail.com

BarbraManiac