Reinventing transportation.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.2297890]

You're given a clean slate to totally reinvent how we get around. From freight all the way to personal transit. The only caveats are that it must be different from systems currently in use, and it must not run on fossil fuels.

Pic related; bad idea, but a good example of an "out there" idea that I want to see more of. Be creative, guys.

[Anonymous No.2297894]

>post a good thread which spawns a fruitful conversation discussing solutions to a real-world problem facing humanity in the immediate future
>delete it and post this nonsense

[Anonymous No.2297900]

I create an engine fueled by happy thoughts and unicorn farts.

[Anonymous No.2297903]

i will get a boner and pogo around on my penis

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.2297902]

>>2297894

It wasn't fruitful. It was full of people suggesting we keep everything exactly the same, but run it on synthetic fuels.

That's extremely boring.

[Anonymous No.2297904]

>>2297902
Whether or not it gives you a boner isn't important, faggot.

[Anonymous No.2297910]

>>2297902
Autonomous electric taxis - that will take at least another 20 years. Maglev or electric light rail for longers distances - already being done.

[Anonymous No.2297911]

this is boring. your underwater thread was better.

[Anonymous No.2297914]

propane engine....that was easy

[Anonymous No.2297916]

Probably put tons of money into something based on magnetism. Something similar to a maglev, but on a smaller scale for the average consumer. Putting the magnets under existing roads would be extensive, expensive, yet economical.

Such a system could create several safety functions, such as disabling magnets ahead of you on red lights (such features could be bypassed by EMT vehicles), the magnets of your car being disabled if an excess trace of alcohol is detected in your blood, and hell, if we're getting creative, complete lack of need of interaction with the driver at all (Plug in location you're going to, magnets take you there.)

However, considering that once oil is suddenly gone that the world will riot within hours, that will never get done.

[Anonymous No.2297918]

I have one, it's called WALKING

It's free and good for your body as well.

[Anonymous No.2297921]

>>2297914
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_natural_gas

[Anonymous No.2297922]

>>2297902
That's because the system works. I'd personally like to see more rail and other public transportation, but aside from that we have a fairly good system already in place.

[Anonymous No.2297925]

>>2297902
It wasn't the discussion you wanted. That doesn't mean it wasn't fruitful. People were discussing and learning; how hydrogen wasn't a reasonable fuel, how electricity caused problems in itself, and the raw value of existing infrastructure (in the many trillions of dollars).

So you're bored. There was an interesting discussion ongoing.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.2297933]

>>2297910

>>Autonomous electric taxis - that will take at least another 20 years.

If you mean PRT, Masdar city has it now, as does Heathrow airport. And both Tokyo and San Francisco have fleets of electric taxis supported by a battery swapping station.

If google's autonomous driving software is as good as I've heard, there might soon be no distinction between the two. You could have PRT pods mingling seamlessly with traffic.

[Anonymous No.2297934]

>>2297902
tripfags are cancer
nothing comes close to the energy density and safe and easy handling of fossil fuels.
you already got the answer in the other thread

building anything new on a worldwide scale would cost trillions and all in all would cost more then what we have now.

lets hope they make fusion work

[Anonymous No.2297931]

>>2297904
>>2297903

Boner mind

[Anonymous No.2297928]

>>2297916
>extensive, expensive, yet economical.
Contradiction much? Strike the last one and I agree.

[Anonymous No.2297937]

>>2297928
I should have specified.
It's initial implementation would be incredibly expensive, however, in the long run, the amount we would save we be massive on a large scale. This isn't only in costs of obtaining fuels, but also results of the safety functions mentioned later in the post.

[Anonymous No.2297939]

>>2297933
The "autonomous" part is the problem. Self-driving cars are probably about that far away.

[Anonymous No.2297948]

Both of Mad Scientists's threads are filled with underageb&. From the OP.

[Anonymous No.2297963]

How about a care that runs by burning people while they're still alive?

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.2297971]

>>2297916

>>Probably put tons of money into something based on magnetism. Something similar to a maglev, but on a smaller scale for the average consumer. Putting the magnets under existing roads would be extensive, expensive, yet economical.

This is the most interesting proposal so far. How would the vehicles remain stable and controllable? Maglev works because it's on a track. Would you have highways comprised of side by side maglev tracks?

It's interesting to picture. But wow, the cost per mile of those tracks would be astronomical.

[Anonymous No.2297972]

>>2297963
Does the last part help efficiency somehow?

[Anonymous No.2298001]

>>2297971
Indeed, getting all of that electricity would be the primary problem.

As for staying stable, are roads not already tracks with slightly more freedom, in most cases not used well? Tracks are not far from conceivable.

I was posting that in your first thread where there was no more oil, and it was deleted, so just copied it over here, and given still such a case, those costs of electricity are still probably among our best options. Some alleviations however may be using a much lighter material to make the vehicles (As they are on tracks, accidents are far less likely) and using momentum as a primary means within the method. Similar to a multistage rocket firing off delayed boosts to combine to an impressive final speed, then using weaker magnets on the track to simply keep that going.

[Anonymous No.2298029]

Why reinvent personal transportation with outrageous novelty alternatives? I mean, a breakthrough isn't exactly necessary.

[Anonymous No.2298036]

Constantly running public transport.

[Anonymous No.2298066]

nano enhanced horses

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.2298100]

>>2298029

>>Why reinvent personal transportation with outrageous novelty alternatives?

As a design exercise. A thought experiment. An opportunity to be creative. Why not? Calories are not so precious that you can't waste a few thinking about stuff like this.

[Anonymous No.2298182]

Lets expand on your scenario. We have infront of ourselves a Sim City-like sandbox in which, upon pushing play, the region would immediately be populated by a society similar to Anglo-North America or Western Europe, in terms of wealth, intelligence, and demographics. The only caveat is the Earth has no fossil fuels from which to draw; not that chemical equivalents to fossil fuels cannot be used. The construction of the transportation infrastructure should be reasonably maintainable by a society of Western affluence, although such a society may not necessarily be able to absorb the capital costs in one single check. Let us further assume that, as in North America, there are collections of cities (Northwest Corridor, California, PNW) separated by long distances, and that intercontinental infrastructure is ignored.

Without even considering what is to be used physically, we can logically breakdown transportation as a nested hub-and-spoke model. In todays society, you lowest level nodes are peoples place of living (homes) connected to the hub that is their place of work (central business district). These cities are nodes to the hubs of the greater metropolis. The first change is to simply add a logistic superhub of our continent; this is not a capital city or anything of the like, but simply a top-level node for domestic logistics within the continent. The second is to add another node in between the home and the place of work; a local hub for each suburb which would serve to connect persons with shopping, entertainment, and their place of work.

[Anonymous No.2298184]

>>2298182
- First large change: the removal of motorized personal transport. Travel between ones residence and the local travel hub would be accomplished by bicycle. These vary between normal two-wheeled person carriers and three-wheeled devices for moving more substantial items. Families would own multiples of each type; three-wheeled bikes fold for storage density; secured lockups are available at local hubs. The elderly and the disabled would be urged not to live in suburbia, and live in the (premium) housing of the central business district to ease their logistical load. For large loads, community owned electric vehicles may be used with a deposit.

- Second large change: personal shopping and entertainment would not be interspersed with personal housing. There would be dedicated shopping and entertainment districts. Districts would be concentric, such that persons would only move within their local hub line, and not have to travel all the way to the CBD and transfer to reach such a place (except for luxury goods stores and the like which may be rare). This is intended to ease the logistical load on freight, given the lack of trucks.

[Anonymous No.2298187]

>>2298184
Largely however, transportation technology would not be changed substantially. Due to the scarcity of synthetic fuels, aircraft would typically only serve inter-metropolis destinations for people and for very-high-priority freight. There would be a single airport per metropolis, plus a vast one at the 'superhub'. Both Inter-metropolis and inter-city freight would be managed by conventional freight train; inter-metropolis running on synthetic fuels, and inter-city on pantographs. Inter-city passenger movement would be by high speed rail. Intra-city movement would be accomplished by more typical city train; both in passenger and freight, and occasionally combined, forms, again all operated by pantograph.

Rural farmers would have personal synthetic fuel units which would consume a small fraction of their crops for both power generation and personal movement, where electrification would be costly. Community train stations, every 150km on a nation-wide grid, would connect rural dwellers to each other and the metropolis network. These would be neither electrified nor high speed.

[Anonymous No.2298191]

>>2298066
with carbon fibre bones, enlarged lungs to get more air, hair that gathers light energy and other resources from the surroundings, a stomach that can digest anything for energy,

[Anonymous No.2298194]

>>2298066

[Anonymous No.2298223]

Of course! It's so simple!

[Inurdaes !V1sPhobos. No.2298234]

A network of underground maglev tunnels under the entire city/country. People can own their own personal cart and then state their destination. This then rockets them off to their destination efficiently and safely. It can move forward, backwards, but also upwards and downwards into different tunnels. All the 'carts' are networked intelligently to stop any crashes.

[Anonymous No.2298236]

>>2298223
I laughed hard.

Also, I propose that we make city streets as frictionless as possible, and push ourselves around on large innertubes with thrusters powered by compressed air. Accident? Nah, just bumpercars!

[Anonymous No.2298240]

>>2298234
So basically just an upscaled underground turbolift?

[Inurdaes !V1sPhobos. No.2298251]

>>2298240
I guess.

For very low gravity worlds transport can be achieved by launching people through railguns directed at where they wish to be.

[Anonymous No.2298265]

>>2298251

[Anonymous No.2298274]

>>2298234
>>2298234
>>People can own their own personal cart and then state their destination

how about just common ownership? or a rental system, you take whatever one is convenient and one is always stationed in your home when you are also

[Anonymous No.2298277]

point to point hypersonic flight on suborbital spacecraft.

[Anonymous No.2298288]

>>2298274
This, personal ownership would be less efficient. It would, however, make people more careful with the interiors, and allow customization.

[Inurdaes !V1sPhobos. No.2298297]

>>2298274
That would be dominant, but there would be an option to own your own cart. Full communal ownership would bring up problems, such as some drunk guy throws up or pisses in a cart and so forth.

This is not meant as a long distance travel option as the speed limit will be 220km/h. For far away cities a vaccum tube maglev train system capable of speeds up to 4,800km/h will be used.

[Anonymous No.2298300]

>>2297890

Teleportation.

Possible, just not with our current technology.


Jumping through wormholes.
Pogo-sticks.
Anti-matter fueled spaceships (more useful for transportation to different planets).
Dimensional jumping.
Vehicles powered by Element 126.

Walking.

[Anonymous No.2298318]

>>2298300
Dragging yourself forward using only your tongue. With bionic enhancements, it's far more effective than it sounds. Then, you also have a bionic tongue.

[Anonymous No.2298323]

MAGNET CARS

[Anonymous No.2298326]

Bring back Zeppelins.

[Anonymous No.2298332]

>>2298300

>Teleportation.

>Possible,

ln2uncertaintyprinciple

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.2298343]

>>2298187
>>2298184
>>2298182

[Anonymous No.2298354]

>>2298318
good with women

[Anonymous No.2298407]

>mfw walking to the nearest semi-populated town from where I live would take about 10 hours plus.

[Belisaurius No.2298411]

THE FLYING BUS.
Boarding involves a harness, some cable, and a hook (think the skyhook system at lower altitude).
Getting off involves a parachute.

...okay, that's stupid, inconvenient, and quite possibly dangerous.

Hmm...
Maybe a computerized maglev cart system.Like >>2298234
Except carts are rented since they're immobile outside the tunnels. Each one is more of a flying platform than an actual vehicle. Since the system will be complex as fuck and need all manner of sub-systems to work right, I can't see the network stretching everywhere. Need some kind of independent transportation but don't want to use a car. Walking isn't enough for cargo hauling.
hmm...

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.2298421]

>>2298411

What about electric cars capable of traveling on maglev tracks, but also normal roads? And while on the track, your batteries are being charged? You could have traditional roads in all cities and towns, but replace interstate highways with maglev tracks.

[Anonymous No.2298492]

Trams, trams, trains, trains, trams. I like tracks.