In the Flintstones the cars and buses and such were often powered by the riders essentially moving their feet. Even as a child that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me; I mean why wouldn’t Fred just walk instead of having to use his feet to “drive” the car. Apparently some of the cars were powered by crude engines made somehow out of stone, or powered by animals – but the point is that even the theme song suggested it was “Fred’s two feet” that provided the motion. So much for Stone Age technology, but now that same source could be used for a very high-tech monorail. And we’re not talking about a cartoon character’s two feet, but rather your two legs, at least if you plan on riding in the Shweeb monorail.
The still very-much-in-concept contraption would use a series of pedal-powered pods suspended from rails 19 feet above the round. The inventor, Geoff Barnett, says that he came up with the idea while in Japan where he cycled in and around the cities.
According to the company:
Shock absorbers protruding from the front and the back of each vehicle supply a 1200mm (4ft) buffer zone between vehicles. This allows vehicles to come together at speed differences between 0-30kph (19mph) without harsh jolting. Shweeb transit pods are geared to move at 5 – 25kph (3 – 16mph).
There is no need for an overtaking lane. When two riders come together, the dynamics change completely. Riders travelling separately are held back by the high pressure zone (the ‘headwind’) pushing against their nose, and the low pressure zone (the vacuum) pulling on their tail. When vehicles come together, these resistances are halved.
The front rider loses their vacuum and the rear rider loses their headwind. In effect they become one vehicle with two engines. The front rider simply changes up a gear to compensate for the higher speed.
Just as tandem bicycles always travel faster than two single bicycles, two Shweebs travelling in a train always travel faster than either of them could travelling solo.
It is for this reason that the bullet shape is most efficient. Although an aerofoil (‘teardrop’) shape would be faster for a solo rider, its reduction of tail vacuum makes it less effective as a train segment.
Currently, such a system already exists in the Agroventures Park in Rotorua, New Zealand. If you can’t get there, maybe you’ll see it show up soon stateside. It has reported that Google Inc. has invested in the company as part of the Project 10^100 as a call for ideas to change the world. Let’s see if this is one that really can help people.