October 14, 2008
pod car city
Ithaca, New York wants to become the first pod car city.
At stations located every block or every half-mile, depending on the need, a rider enters a destination on a computerized pad, and a car would take the person nonstop to the location. Stations would have slanted pull-in bays so that some cars could stop for passengers, while others could continue unimpeded on the main course.
“It works almost like an elevator, but horizontally,” said Roberts, adding podcar travel would be safer than automobile travel.
The podcar is not entirely new. A limited version with larger cars carrying up to 15 passengers was built in 1975 in Morgantown, W.Va., and still transports West Virginia University students.
Next year, Heathrow Airport outside London will unveil a pilot podcar system to ferry air travelers on the ground. Companies in Sweden, Poland and Korea are already operating full-scale test tracks to demonstrate the feasibility. Designers are planning a podcar network for Masdar City, outside Abu Dhabi, which is being built as the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city.
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3 Responses to “pod car city”
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The plan sounds like electric cars with computerized drivers (asleep at the wheel, counting electric sheep…) That is, I can’t really see how this is a form of mass transit. There’s still the last mile problem, that people won’t walk more than 5 to 10 minutes if they can drive; far less than that if it is in the inhospitable environment of parking lots and highways. The suburban ideal of every man’s little estate is lovely, but it just doesn’t scale.
How many square meters of roadway, gas station, drive thru and parking lot are allotted just for one of us? It’s all adding up, one driver at a time, pushing man further from man. I wonder how long before the thought leaders realize density is the only solution.
Or the GM Futurama at the 1939 Worlds Fair. I once asked my mom about her visit to that fair — and about that fabled attraction in particular.
“What was it? What did you do?” I asked.
“Oh.” She rolled her eyes, tossed her head, and smiled a dismissive smile. “We just rode around in little cars on a track and gaped at the future.”
Yea they all promise us so much…I remember the years leading up to 2000…we all do, the promises of backpacks and silver suits. I was there Jan 1st 2000….where were these items? Hollow promises, broke my heart, please don’t do it again with the hope of Pod Cars.
And don’t even get me on the promise of a paper free society, I bought that first computer with so much hope. I am still reeling from this paper free society not being just that, paper free!