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 class="gmail_quote">2010/10/13 Dan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dan_ust@yahoo.com">dan_ust@yahoo.com</a>></span><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><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">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">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"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/12/shweeb.urban.transport/index.html?hpt=C2" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/12/shweeb.urban.transport/index.html?hpt=C2</a></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><font face="Arial" size="2"><span></span></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span></span></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span></span></font> </div></div></div></div><br>
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