The world’s population is growing every
day, which means that there are more commuters
who need to get around.
The increase in commuters will make gridlock
in urban areas much worse, and will also put
a lot of pressure on aging and outdated public
transit systems.
Not to mention, it could be devastating to
the environment.
To combat the growing problem, new, inexpensive,
and innovative forms of transportation are
going to be needed.
While self-driving cars are expected to become
the norm in about 25 years, what other forms
of transportation will we be using?
10.
Drone Train
In his video, designer Dahir Insaat shows
how a large drone tethered to a track would
be a cheap and eco-friendly way to transport
lots of people.
Insaat doesn’t give many details about his
system, but claims that it can all be made
with current technology and would be environmentally
friendly.
Besides being a tethered drone, something
else that stands out about the design is the
inside of the drone where the passengers are
held.
It looks more like a bar and restaurant than
a cramped train or airplane.
And if you had to travel over a long distance,
which would you rather choose?
9.
Lopifit
If our ancestors knew that we had machines
that allowed us to run or walk in one spot,
they would probably laugh at us (but hopefully
if you time travel and meet your ancient ancestors,
the treadmill isn’t the topic you lead with).
Trying to remedy the ridiculousness of treadmills
and turn them into functional modes of transportation
is the Dutch company Lopifit.
The Lopifit is a scooter-type vehicle that
utilizes a battery and is powered by someone
walking on a treadmill.
The battery range is 34 miles and its top
speed is about 15 miles per hour, which is
faster than the average speed of a bicycle.
It has six gears, can climb hills and even
has interchangeable wheels for off road excursions.
One Lopifit will set you back 1,899 Euros
($2,100 USD).
8.
Quadrofoil
There’s a saying about boats: they’re
holes in water that you dump money into.
They are hard to maintain and most of them
aren’t exactly energy efficient, meaning
they’re expensive to drive as well.
For these reasons, boats like the Quadrofoil
may become more popular in the future.
The two passenger boat has an all-electric
motor and from one charge, it has a 60 mile
range.
The boat uses hydrofoil technology, which
means it uses special vanes, or wings, that
push it out of the water, which cuts down
on resistance and makes the boat go faster.
In the case of the Quadrofoil, that’s about
21 knots (about 18 MPH).
The boat is almost silent and can be used
in environmentally protected sanctuaries.
If you want one, it costs about $18,700 for
a baseline model.
7.
The Shweeb
Bicycles are great for getting around, but
they do have a few downsides.
Once you get somewhere, you have to lock it
up, then you have to find some place to store
your helmet.
Not to mention the contemptuous relationship
between cyclists and drivers and how many
people are killed and injured every year while
riding a bike.
For these reasons, the future of cycling may
be something like The Shweeb, which is a human-powered
monorail.
The system uses aerodynamic pods in a tube
that hang from low resistance tracks.
By just pedaling, most riders reach 28 MPH,
and up to five cars can be linked together.
A proof of concept was built at an amusement
park in New Zealand and the designer says
that they could be easily and inexpensively
expanded to cities.
Since they are powered by humans, there would
be a minimal carbon footprint.
Now, we just need to do something about that
ridiculous name and we’re all set.
6.
cTrain
Boston boasts a population of over 667,000
people and is one of the major tourist cities
in the United States.
That means when there is an event or bad weather,
the city can become nightmarishly gridlocked.
Their transit infrastructure is also badly
out of date and to get moderate upgrades,
it is going to cost the city $7.3 billion.
Of course, Boston isn’t alone in this and
cities across the world are struggling with
gridlock and aging and inadequate public transit
systems.
However, we use Boston as the example, because
a transit designer in Boston has a way to
alter the Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority for a measly $2.3 billion.
Emil Jacob’s idea is to replace all the
buses, subways, and commuter rail with elevated
electric street cars.
The cTrain, which is short for Caterpillar
Train, would use narrow cable-like rail lines
that are elevated about two stories over the
road.
The system would run cars on top of the track,
while other cars hang below, meaning two trains
could use the track at the same time.
A 40-foot train car could run on the same
amount of power required to operate three
golf carts and it could travel at speeds of
50 to 100 MPH.
Besides just being cheaper to install instead
of upgrading, the cTrain would be less expensive
to operate and it would be much more environmentally
friendly.
5.
3D Express Coach
If you hate traffic, you might want to avoid
China.
It’s already home to the world’s longest
traffic jam (it was 62 miles long and lasted
for 12 days) and 14 million new cars are bought
there every year.
China’s population is also expected to increase
by over 100 million people over the next 15
years – meaning the Chinese government will
really need to think outside the box if they
want to keep their citizens moving without
poisoning everyone.
One proposal is the 3D Express Coach that
was first unveiled by the Shenzhen Hashi Future
Parking Equipment Company in 2010.
The vehicles, which can carry 300 people,
span the whole road and on both sides of the
double lane road are tracks.
This would allow the bus to travel over the
cars, which would have a twofold effect.
The first is that it removes buses from the
road, which would alleviate traffic.
Secondly, by avoiding traffic and going above
it, the 3D Express Coach can keep to their
schedule, making them more reliable.
Test tracks for the Coach Express are set
to be laid in China in 2016.
4.
The Horizon System
An interesting, but far out way to travel
long distances is the Horizon System, which
was developed by a group of Scottish students.
How it works is that you arrive at the airports
of the future, which they call SkyStations.
They will be placed throughout the cities
and equipped with restaurants, bars, and an
augmented reality mall.
Which we guess is a thing that might exist
at some point?
Once your SkyLink pod arrives, you board it,
and you can go to another SkyStation nearby,
or if you have a longer distance to travel,
your pod will meet up with other pods on a
specialized airstrip.
Then, a drone will swoop down and, using powerful
magnets, the SkyShip will pick up your pod
like an “Eagle catching its prey.”
This recharges the SkyShips’ battery, which
allows the SkyShips to always be running.
After picking up the pods, the SkyShip will
start to climb.
Once it reaches a certain elevation, the pods
will open up and you’ll be able to leave
your seat.
When you reach your destination, the SkyShip
will drop off your pod at the airstrip and
it will take you to the nearest SkyStation.
Of course, there is a long way to go before
we have drones that can pick up trains, but
the Horizon System shows what exciting things
may come with advancements in transportation.
3.
skyTran
Bordering the line between transportation
and amusement park ride is NASA’s skyTran.
The system uses rocket shaped cars that hold
four people and hang from a cable.
Using electromagnets, each car can reach 60
MPH, but they only use one-third of the energy
of a hybrid car.
To install a skyTran system, it would cost
a city $8 million per a kilometer and then
it’s $25,000 to $30,000 per car, which is
relatively cheap compared to the alternatives.
For example, it costs anywhere from $100 million
to $2 billion to build one kilometer of an
underground system.
Another bonus is that the skyTran can be set
up in a matter of days, instead of months
or years.
The electromagnets also mean that it uses
less energy, making the cars cheaper to run.
SkyTran would be a personal transit system
where electricity isn’t relied on.
Currently, skyTran is being tested in Tel
Aviv, Israel.
If the tests are successful, three other cities
in Israel and several in the United States
will be installing skyTran systems in 2018.
2.
Passenger Drones
Flying cars may look cool in movies like Blade
Runner, but there are some serious problems
with them.
For example, if you get into a fender bender
or your flying car stalls in the sky, it could
be a lot more serious than having a head-on
collision on the ground.
Plus, instead of just a driver’s license,
people would also need a pilot’s license,
which would be much harder to get because
flying is obviously more complicated than
driving.
And if you’ve done some driving in a city
with a lot of traffic, you know that many
people should have never been granted their
driver’s license (Toronto, we’re looking
in your direction), so why would anyone risk
using a flying car?
Tackling many of these potential problems
is EHang Inc., a Chinese drone company.
At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, they
unveiled the 184, a personal autonomous aerial
vehicle, which is the world’s first passenger
drone.
It’s a single person drone that uses eight
propellers and goes 1,000 to 1,650 feet off
the ground, but it has a maximum altitude
of 11,500 feet . It has a top speed of 62
MPH, and it can carry 264 pounds.
The biggest limitation is that it can only
keep a passenger airborne at sea level for
23 minutes and it takes two hours to charge
it.
The controls for flying one are Idiocracy-­type
easy.
There are two commands that can be controlled
on a tablet: take off, and land.
Once the drone is in the air, it will guide
itself to your destination and land safely
on its own.
The EHang is expected to go on sale later
in 2016 with a price tag between $200,000
and $300,000.
1.
Evacuated Tube Transport
An interesting thing about air is that while
we can’t feel it while we are standing still
or moving slowly, the faster you move, the
more air resistance you meet, and the more
it slows you down.
However, if there was no air, we could move
around much more freely.
Of course if there was no air we’d all die,
but that’s neither here nor there.
Anyway, a lack of air resistance is the idea
behind evacuated tube transport, which would
use frictionless vehicles in an airless or
near airless tube.
One example of an evacuated tube transport
system is Elon Musk’s Hyperloop.
The Hyperloop removes most of the air from
a steel tube, and then cars are pushed using
a tiny amount of air compression.
Musk proposed that the first Hyperloop would
connect Los Angeles to San Francisco, a distance
of about 380 miles.
The passenger cars could leave every 10 seconds
and they could reach 760 MPH, meaning the
trip would be done in half an hour (whereas
by car, it would be about a six hour drive).
The cost of the Hyperloop is $6 billion, which
sounds like a lot of money.
However, California is already building a
much-delayed, high speed train, and it’s
costing them ten times more with a price tag
of at least $64 billion.
Then when it is done, it will only go 220
MPH – not nearly as fast as the Hyperloop.
Musk has already raised $120 million in investor
money and wants to have the system carrying
passengers by 2021.
Beyond California, another company called
ET3 wants to use the same principle and have
frictionless trains that travel from continent
to continent.
Their vacuum tube uses electromagnets and
cars would carry six people, reaching speeds
of 4,000 MPH, which is more than five times
faster than the current land speed record.
However, due to the way the car increases
its velocity, passengers inside never feel
like they are going faster than a sharp turn
in a car.
