<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>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).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Regards,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dan</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Adrian Tymes <atymes@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Wed, October 13, 2010 11:50:45 AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [ExI] shweeb<BR></FONT><BR>Read the article. You're not the only one to have such concerns.<BR><BR>This seems fundamentally impractical outside of the largest of cities. If you have the<BR>population density to make rails viable, you have the population density to make powered<BR>vehicles on those rails viable - see subways, and trains in general.<BR><BR>Now, there is something to possibly be said for a wider network of rails using smaller,<BR>auto-piloted pods summoned like elevators. The more destinations it can get close to, the<BR>more useful it will be,
especially if it can make its schedule reliant on its riders' instead of<BR>vice versa. Although, those rails had better be enclosed and inaccessible (like an elevator<BR>shaft) unless you're in a pod or have special maintenance access, else the first suicide<BR>(throwing self in the path of a pod) might shut the system down. (This is a problem with<BR>Schweeb too.)<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif">
<DIV class=gmail_quote>2010/10/13 Dan <SPAN dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:dan_ust@yahoo.com" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:dan_ust@yahoo.com">dan_ust@yahoo.com</A>></SPAN><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Regards,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dan</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif"><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> spike <<A href="mailto:spike66@att.net" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:spike66@att.net">spike66@att.net</A>><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> ExI chat list <<A href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</A>><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Tue, October 12, 2010 4:13:08 PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [ExI] shweeb<BR></FONT><BR>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN>Is this cool or what?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/12/shweeb.urban.transport/index.html?hpt=C2</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN>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.)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN>spike</SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV></DIV></div><br>
</body></html>