Shweebs may wobble, but please don't fall down

If you have an ear to cycling, youtube, transit, or just wacky inventions, you have probably heard that:

In September 2010 Google Inc. announced an investment of USD1m in SHL to assist with transit research and development.

From shweeb.com


Initially I thought: What a horrible idea, I can't believe Google would get behind something so obviously flawed. While I love cycling, and know we need to innovate around dino-powered vehicles, this just can't work. Infrastructure aside, just think about getting stuck for an eternity behind some slow-poke (that might be me!). So yeah, you could link up and the faster could speed up the slower. Next time you go through a revolving door, take a look at who is pulling/pushing their weight and who is just coasting - now translate that into pedaling your bike and your running late - no thanks.


But then, I took a step back. I still don't think pedal power would work... but what if there were an alternative engine - magnets, electric motor in the pod or external to the pod. ||Here is the part where I hope Google is listening and offers me a swank job|| Then, the schweeb starts to look like a packet, and the rail infrastructure looks like a switched network. Which is to say, commuters ride the pod, but don't drive it or power it. Commuters punch in their destination, before or after entering, and the routers/switches do the rest.

Perhaps a bunch of "packets" get lined up into a train for X% of travel, with some packets at the end falling off at the next routing point / fork in the road / switch.



A lot can probably be borrowed from places like six flags and existing transit stations/stops as far as making the embarkation/disembarkation run smoothly.

I suppose people could own their own pods, but then there is the matter of registration, upkeep, and parking - doable, for sure.

There could be an average size for the common case, then have some "floater" pods for: really tall people, heavy people, parents with babies. The rail infrastructure would have to accommodate the biggest/longest/heaviest, but then the fleet could be 90-98% the same, to save on production, maintenance and upkeep costs.


"dead heads" are a problem for bus systems, and balancing the empty pods would take CS and math skills that only made a passing visit in my brain years ago (did I just blow the e-interview... maybe).


What about when things go wrong?
Pod door fails to open
Pod door fails to shut properly
Locomotion system fails
Rail system fails
Power Outage
Weather
Sick Passenger
Funkadelic Previous Passenger
...


Lot's of things to think about.... $#|+ does happen, all we can do is prepare for it.

IDK, I think I've convinced myself that I'd love to walk to the scheeb network access point, wave my card as I enter the system, wait in line for a bit, hop into the pod, lay back and catch some z's or fiddle with my laptop as I careen 50 miles to work.


EOM