[ExI] shweeb

[Dan]

The difference, though, between this and subways and trains is the latter are 
really just a few units on a rail system carryings lot of people and controlled, 
usually, by one centralized system. This looks to be many independently 
controlled units sharing the same track. It's not impossible to overcome these 
problems, of course, but it seems rather quixotic -- as long as we're talking 
about people peddling around on a monorail (and not the things you mention 
below, such as personal pods).

Regards,

Dan

From: Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com>
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Wed, October 13, 2010 11:50:45 AM
Subject: Re: [ExI] shweeb

Read the article.  You're not the only one to have such concerns.

This seems fundamentally impractical outside of the largest of cities.  If you 
have the
population density to make rails viable, you have the population density to make 
powered
vehicles on those rails viable - see subways, and trains in general.

Now, there is something to possibly be said for a wider network of rails using 
smaller,
auto-piloted pods summoned like elevators.  The more destinations it can get 
close to, the
more useful it will be, especially if it can make its schedule reliant on its 
riders' instead of
vice versa.  Although, those rails had better be enclosed and inaccessible (like 
an elevator
shaft) unless you're in a pod or have special maintenance access, else the first 
suicide
(throwing self in the path of a pod) might shut the system down.  (This is a 
problem with
Schweeb too.)


2010/10/13 Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com>

I'm not sure how this would work as ever more users started to use it. How would 
people get around each other on the rail? What happens when someone in front of 
you stops? Unlike with a sidewalk or a multi-lane street -- where you can go 
around people, bikes, or cars in most circumstances -- I reckon you're just 
stuck until she or he does something.
>
>Would you have to have so many rails that it'd look like those old photos where 
>dozens of separate wires went from pole to pole on each street? (Not to mention 
>the load of hundreds of thousands of these. That's an easier problem to solve, 
>but it might drive up the price tag.)
>
>Even if these hurdles are overcome -- maybe by use being so low that they don't 
>arise -- I imagine it won't be for everyone: certainly not for the claustrophic 
>or the acrophobic.
>
>Regards,
>
>Dan
>
>
>From: spike <spike66 at att.net>
>To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>Sent: Tue, October 12, 2010 4:13:08 PM
>Subject: [ExI] shweeb
>
>
>Is this cool or what?
> 
>http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/12/shweeb.urban.transport/index.html?hpt=C2
>
> 
>I would ride one.  It solves a lotta problems in urban transportation, and the 
>infrastructure cost can be held down by the fact that the individual shweebs are 
>lightweight.  We could make motorized pods about every tenth one, so that they 
>can be used by the ADLED crowd (aged, disabled, lazy, exalted, dilatory.)
> 
>spike


      
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