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dragonsowl (June 23, 2008 at 8:35 pm)
What we need are these PRT systems in the cities hooked up to larger metro rail systems connecting the cities to the suburbs.
Take metro to the edge of the city, then take this PRT system to work the rest of the way! :D
scstraus (April 25, 2008 at 10:22 pm)
I say they wire up the whole city and we all ditch our cars. I'd be happy to use these every day.
PhenixRising1171 (April 23, 2008 at 5:43 pm)
This is an excellent idea but I am not sure if it is truly scalable to a suburban setting. I've read about CyberTran which is a similar system but based on a rail so that it does not have similar power issues. This is truly a good idea for an urban setting though. I hope it succeeds.
cmfsharp (April 6, 2008 at 6:23 pm)
Well, it's true that most trips would be about 5 mins, but a 10-mile trip (considering ULTra would average 30mph or less) would require at least 3 minutes of recharging, y/n? And I don't think HVAC energy is included in these estimates.
Another way would be to use overhead trolley wires.
cmfsharp (April 6, 2008 at 6:16 pm)
I hadn't, so I wiki'd him up. Impressive.
airbuscrazy (March 22, 2008 at 8:37 pm)
The pod idea s ingenious, but I'm a family of five, and it'd be a watse of energy to give a pod to one person, thay should have 4 and 6 capacity pods.
skybum (March 14, 2008 at 2:07 pm)
Also, there's nothing to stop people from car-pooling when they have the same destination. Actually, they'd be very motivated to do so, because you pay for the vehicle, not for the seat. If four people are all going to the same place and choose to ride with each other, then they effectively get 75% discounts. So during rush hours, I expect that it will be quite common to see 3-4 people in a vehicle, increasing the efficiency even further.
skybum (March 14, 2008 at 2:04 pm)
Because families don't like being separated from each other that way. Actually it *is* much better than a car, for two reasons: much lighter weight vehicles (since they operate in a controlled environment), and no intermediate starting-and-stopping during a trip. (It's the starting and stopping which consumes most energy during a trip.) Between those factors, even with an average occupancy of 1.2, these use about 80% less energy than cars.
rzigmu (March 14, 2008 at 1:20 pm)
Ok, but still I would consider that an enormous waste of capacity. 1 person in a pod for four? Not much better than a car. Why couldn't you program the pods to make a convoy for the families and have pods for one or two?
skybum (March 13, 2008 at 3:33 pm)
Hi, you haven't quite got the concept. The pods aren't shared with strangers. You go to a station, punch in your destination, get in your own private vehicle, and then go straight there. Nobody else rides with you unless you want them to. Most vehicles will probably only have one or two passengers, but they need to be large enough to accommodate families. |
