I would like to invent:

[Bryn Mawr]

Hoss;979250 wrote: A new mass transit system for city’s.

I envision a city that all personal vehicles are parked at the edge of the free way, and continuously moving personal pod vehicles move people to all services and points throughout the city. A system of electric delivery vehicles deliver goods purchased that are too large to fit in a pod. A segway type vehicle or bicycle can be used to travel from your home to the hub where the pod is picked up.

For example:

I get up in the morning, and walk down to the hub a few blocks away where I grab a cup of coffee and step into my personal pod as it moves off the track and slows enough for me to step in, or stops in a loading zone if I need to load something, when the pod takes off it merges effortlessly in line. I wave to my nearby neighbors that usually leave the same time I do. I take my pod to the Fire Station I work at. During my shift there is a medical call, the pods in the route that affect my travel to the fire stop and open a pathway for me to get a direct and fast route to the fire. When we pass the pods resume their pathway. On the weekend when I want to go out of the city My family jumps in the pods and we go to the edge of the freeway where my personal vehicle is parked, I get us on the freeway and engage the automatic pilot and set my numbered freeway exit, our family moves into traffic at a set and constant speed as we travel and enjoy each others company, we arrive at our exit off the free way where I resume control of the vehicle and drive the side roads to the beach for the day.

The pods are not ‘tracked’ but hold their course by GPS and locator chips on the road. When you’re ready to get on one, you push a button like your going to walk across the street, but instead the pod pulls off the road slowly, or you can hit a button to have it stop to load stuff. Punch in your destination and the pod would move to the inside lane for longer distances and outer lanes for short slower distances.

I can envision the hubs where the pods pick people up and drop them off as small strip malls of stores and business that would serve food, snacks, newspapers, internet café’s, fruit stands, etc.

What would you like to invent, Or do you have an idea to improve my Mass transit sytem?


You've been talking to Spot again haven't you - that's one of his pet gripes.

I like your solution - needs a hell of a central computer or some very tight distributed processing to build in the failsafes but sounds workable.