The Discovery Channel brought my lazy channel surfing the other day to a resounding halt. They were doing a story on the Shweeb (I still think that ought to be “Schweeb”), a human-powered monorail in New Zealand:
That’s a bit Minority Report, isn’t it? I suppose it would keep you dry riding to and from work in Vancouver winters–but how would you turn corners when you reached an intersection?
And what happens in an emergency? You can’t really get around it, nor can you lend a hand that easily.
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simon It’s at an amusement park-type place, with a dual loop track like a slot car track, where you start and finish at the same place but diverge a bit in between. You pays your money, you race your buddy. It’s not some pseudo-futuristic transport solution, though I wouldn’t mind riding one on my commute.
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darren Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Indeed, I gather that. But it could be a transport system, I suppose. Besides, I imagine that most of the transport systems we use today started out as silly gimmicks at one point or another.
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Jeff What Simon said.
It’s not a transport system it’s just a ride. We were there in January, and it did not look very appealing. It looked hot and swety in those cocoons actually. We went Zorbing nearby, and that had an excellent time.
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