
Five transport promises that never quite changed the world - e-sushi
http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20160706-5-transportation-technologies-we-wish-were-more-popular
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evan_
Really surprised the Segway isn't at least mentioned- before its unveiling,
Steve Jobs said that future cities would be designed around it.

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rm999
In all fairness, future cities may still be designed around that kind of
transportation. Not many cities have been designed and built in the last 10
years.

Also, I didn't know Steve Jobs had any kind of relationship with the Segway.
But it doesn't seem like he was the biggest fan of it and the launch plans:
[http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3533.html](http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3533.html)

>I think [the design] sucks. Its shape is not innovative, it's not elegant and
it doesn't feel anthropomorphic

>Screw the lead times. You don't have a great product yet! I know burn rates
are important, but you'll only get one shot at this, and if you blow it, it's
over.

>Jobs said he lived seven minutes from a grocery and wasn't sure he would use
Ginger to get there.

Steve Jobs was a very critical person, but I think he was often right for the
right reasons. The segway was a product designed by engineers, and it showed.
Its launch was over-hyped and under-delivered. It also doesn't really solve a
problem that exists in current cities.

~~~
nostromo
The Segway has been reborn as cheaper, cooler, smaller hoverboards.

Jobs was right, the idea of the Segway was a good one, but the execution
wasn't quite right.

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grahamburger
One of the things a lot of these transport methods seem to ignore is traveling
with kids. Cars really are the easiest way to date to travel with small-ish
children. It's really nice to be able to stash baby stuff in the trunk and
know you always have it with you just in case without carrying it everywhere.
(Bottles, diapers, change of clothes, etc). Single person cars, moving
walkways and especially jet packs (!) Are particularly difficult / impossible
with kids, same with Segways, etc.

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mikey_p
Both bicycles (long john or long tail) and walking (with or without a
stroller) are both quite good ways to get around with children as well. Unless
you have a very large number of kids (> 3 or so) you can probably fit
everything you need in a small backpack or messenger bag.

~~~
imaginenore
Bicycles are incredibly dangerous compared to cars, even for adults [1]. They
are an absolute nightmare for transporting small children. An adult can fall
from a bicycle and get a scratched knee, while an infant/toddler will break
his neck.

Walking is much more dangerous as well, and is tiring even with one child.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_safety#Comparison_to_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_safety#Comparison_to_other_modes_of_travel)

~~~
askvictor
I'm very curious about the source data for this, in particular where (it will
be different between countries) and when (over what period of time it was
collected). I'm not outright discounting it, but seems very odd from my
experience.

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sandworm101
Monorail: Light rail transport is common, as are elevated trains. Whether they
use one or more than one 'rail' is beside the point.

Moving walkways: Escalators. They are everywhere.

Pneumatic trains: Ok, this one failed. Compared to modern electric options,
the sealed tube concept remains a pipe dream. Hyperloop is fun to talk about,
but I cannot see any market.

Single-person car: They are everywhere. We call them motorcycles. And I see
old people in wheelchairs/scooters with roofs, walls and even doors. Single-
person motorized transport is a thing.

Jet pack: Come on? Nobody ever took that seriously. Even if they energy
density issues were addressed, the inherent dangers of such flight would
prevent any widespread use.

~~~
bmer
Also along the lines of single person cars: rickshaws in China and India --
more like a 3 person light car but the concept is the same (fabric roofs, no
doors, relatively slow speed compared to full fledged metal cars, but highly
agile and capable of navigating narrow old-world streets).

Apparently there are some in SF too:
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Auto_Ric...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Auto_Rickshaw_in_San_Francisco.jpg)

~~~
deftnerd
Rickshaws are pretty awesome vehicles. In the US, most of the people who have
a bicycle or motorcycle also have a car.

Micro cars are a good middle ground between them in terms of passenger or
cargo capacity, but they're usually too expensive.

I think Rickshaw-style vehicles could meet that middle ground in the US while
also being far more affordable. It's probably difficult to import rickshaws
since most of them are manufactured in foreign locales to specs that don't
meet import EPA requirements.

I wonder if there are any that would meet import requirements or that are
manufactured in the US. An electric rickshaw is an interesting idea too.

Edit: Maybe the answer is to just get a pedicab and get some battery packs and
an electric assist motor.

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Xcelerate
I'm honestly surprised the monorail never took off. The only reason I can
think of is that "monorail" sounds like some kind of disease — perhaps "air
rail" or "sky train" would have worked better? Safe, efficient, quiet — it
seems like these would go far with regard to public transportation in many
cities.

~~~
jessriedel
There seems to be some common confusion surrounding the term "monorail".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail)

Do you actually mean single rail? Or alternatively do you mean elevated rail
and/or maglev?

I'm under the impression that true monorails have essentially zero advantage
over standard birails. (Narrower and more elegant support structures casting
smaller shadows is of course desirable, but I don't think the number of rails
is a confining parameter in modern tech.)

~~~
ianbicking
Monorails typically use rubber wheels, which DO have a lot of advantages
(maximum grade, sound, stopping distance), but I'm also unclear why that
couldn't be applied to birails. Monorails might also have a smaller turn
radius?

Ultimately I feel like the problem with monorail is that public transit is
primarily a political, not technological, phenomena, and so while there might
be a good idea in monorails, or iterations where it could be combined with
birails to make something truly technologically superior, but it just doesn't
matter.

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kilroy123
The most insane and frustrating story about failed transportation is the fact
a company offered to build a monorail system in Los Angeles for free!

Then Standard Oil came in and stopped it from happening.

[http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/LA1963.html](http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/LA1963.html)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alweg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alweg)

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Animats
Monorails are being built in many major cities outside North America. Japan
has several large monorail systems. Tokyo alone has three major monorail
lines. China has five systems. Mumbai has a big monorail system. Nigeria has
two monorail systems. Moscow has a monorail. (The trains throw the snow off
the beam, raining it on passersby.)

China is putting in their second maglev monorail.

The only new monorail in the US in decades is the one in Vegas.

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fasouto
I recently moved to Amsterdam and find these cars everywhere
[https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5259/5389323025_ed108961c6_b.j...](https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5259/5389323025_ed108961c6_b.jpg)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canta_(vehicle)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canta_\(vehicle\))

They are designed for disabled people and you can drive them in the bike lane
and park almost everywhere. I think an cheap electric version could be very
useful on rainy days (99% of the days here) for short commutes.

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drpgq
Pearson airport in Toronto has a pretty fast moving walkway. Although in its
history it was amazing how often it wasn't working. Like when I flew in last
Wednesday.

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notahacker
Missing:

Flying cars

Supersonic passenger flight (Concorde was a great beta product, but there was
no commercial case for expanding it)

Commercial hovercraft probably deserve to be there at least as much as
monorails too.

~~~
internaut
Hovercraft and pneumatic tubes will always seem like the future to me.

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ksrm
I'm surprised there was no mention of this in the article:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central%E2%80%93Mid-
Levels_esc...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central%E2%80%93Mid-
Levels_escalator_and_walkway_system)

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GregBuchholz
OK, here's my free gift to someone, since I don't live in SF or a big city.
Why isn't there an Uber for buses? You use your smart phone to enter where you
want to go, and a nearby bus comes around and picks you up. Seems like there
are plenty of opportunities to make bus transport nicer. Like having the bus
conform you the needs of the people actively using it at one time (i.e. no
stops where no one is getting on or getting off, and more direct routes,
etc.). Maybe the would be wifi and charging stations on board as well. It
seems like the price should be relatively low, since the cost could be
potentially shared between 10+ people. I'd imagine that the first couple of
buses would be privately owned, but you could expand out to lease the
technology to existing municipalities to extend to their bus lines. And there
would be a natural fit for self-driving buses in the future.

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HeyLaughingBoy
It exists. Around here it's called Dial-A-Ride and like the name says, you
call them and they pick you up at your house and take you wherever. The buses
are like the small airport shuttle buses. It's very popular with senior
citizens who don't drive much.

~~~
GregBuchholz
That's like say Uber existed because you could always call a taxi to come pick
you up.

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jup_it_er
what about two-people vehicles? see litmotors c1 - enclosed EV gyro stabilized
motorcycle I believe smart solution for city environments: business men,
working moms, rainy cities, reckless teenagers

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leeoniya
tl;dr:

Monorail

Moving walkways

Pneumatic trains

Single-person car

Jet pack

~~~
mc32
Can one imagine moving walkways and jetpacks realistically? They look good to
the imagination, but, in practice?

Monorail does work in some places, it just never delivered the volume that
most lines require. So, low volume lines can make use of monorails.

~~~
mjevans
With some materials changes I can imagine a moving walkway of sorts. However
like at the airport it would be a lot more pleasant to use /within/ an at
least partially enclosed environment.

Every time I think of this type of topic I wonder how long we're going to
leave cities the way they are now. Having at least glassed over streets,
separated pedestrian and roadway layers (makes sense when both need more
space), and later stopping cars at the border entirely and having a network of
the moving walkways within makes sense.

~~~
mc32
That's one issue, needing a canopy. The other is they are mechanically
delicate, they wear out and need constant maintenance because garbage, dust,
gunk, rubbish etc contribute to wear as well as breakdown. Just not good for
outdoors environments.

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jup_it_er
hybrid vehicles: how can you change in a hybrid way? We have to get rid of
fossil fuel

