Comments on: New and old pedal powered monorails

By: MJAYS

MJAYS — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:36:25 +0000

Seems like building a commuter friendly bicycle infrastructure in our cities would be cheaper, and more efficient. Dedicated bicycle roadways, not shared roads.

I mean, with this “schweeb” system, do you own the pod? Or does one just show up when you want to ride somehow?

Why limit a pod to one or two people when everyone is going to same place anyway? Why not have 20 people pods where you share the effort? They could ride on current train tracks or light rail lines that are already in place.

I don’t know, everything about this proposal seems pretty poorly planned as a practical commuter device.

They do look fun tho. I could see a demand for them in places like disneyland, or maybe a photography safari type park, Beaches in place of those suspended cable rides, etc. I could see this being feasible as a tourist attraction.

By: Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 11:57:15 +0000

The cycle path you ride on is there to provide a safe and convenient road for you to travel on your bike..it is there for you to use. . You have the choice to use it or not. If my monorail was in place on the cycle path you now have a choice to use this. It would make your journey quicker – less wear and tear on your bike tyres especially on a long run. – more fun !
I believe that just like the cycle path is there and you take it for granted so you will also with the monorail.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:19:38 +0000

It would be more like going from 2:30 to 1:50, assuming that you can get on and off the track exactly where you wanted. Otherwise add in some time walking, and then you probably haven’t saved any time overall.
http://bikecalculator.com/veloMetricNum.html

By: Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:06:10 +0000

If your journey between towns is say 25 miles and if you rode a bike constantly on a cycle path with flat and slope sections at an average of 10 mph the journey time would be an average of 2 and a half hours. With the monorail lets say I ride and. . maintain an average of 20mph then journey time is 1and a quarter hours.
i would be much happier arriving quicker to the same destination. I may have used thesame effort as you but i arrived much earlier/ I believe this alone would attract potential riders!

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 19:40:34 +0000

That would be a good argument if cycling was banned from roads. In this country at least, that’s not the case. Don’t forget that anywhere a magical scweeb can go, a bike can go too, and far beyond it because of our wonderful road system which is already in place. Bike-rail systems are an auxiliary system, which only adds redundancy at a very high expense.

By: Ross Nicholson

Ross Nicholson — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:32:49 +0000

Construction costs for highways are about $4 million dollars a mile, more in cities (see Boston’s Big Dig for the highest in history). There are about 160,000 miles of highways in the US, nearly 4 million miles of other roads. $10 million dollars is trivial by comparison, but, hey, I’m just spitballing here.

By: andy

andy — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:58:36 +0000

It works in NZ because it’s a fun amusement ride on a small track. That works.

Scaling it up to the size of a whole city, funding it, and assuming people will choose that over driving or riding a conventional bike is not trivial. $10 would be trivial, not $10mil

By: Ross Nicholson

Ross Nicholson — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:12:29 +0000

Well, I modeled for the character of Will Hunting in the flick of the same name as well as for parts of A Beautiful Mind. Sometimes stuff is just too trivial to bother. Perhaps it is because I live in a flat coastal town? I have no interest in Shweeb, perhaps I just hate to see great ideas shot down in public by those unwilling to lift their souls. We all need to look up enough to see the blue sky above us and to consider alternatives. They have one of these up and running in New Zealand. They have a website, too. Talk to them about how impossible it is?

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:41:19 +0000

That may be true on completely flat ground, but add the slightest incline and it’s impossible. A 0% grade is equivalent, a 0.1% grade is double the effort, and a mere 1% grade is 10x the effort. Math is a helpful tool, you may want to try using it before making assumptions.

By: Ross Nicholson

Ross Nicholson — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:42:51 +0000

See? Peter Johnson’s already come up with an innovative solution!