Photo Gallery Streets Ahead
The Shweeb train in action in an amusement park in Rotorua, New Zealand. Shweeb is a sort of suspended cycle-powered railway in which each passenger has their own cabin.
Recumbent in the cabin, the driver reclines in a sort of Plexiglas cylinder. The aerodynamic qualities of the teardrop-shaped cylinder mean that the vehicles can achieve higher speeds than a conventional bicycle.
The 200-meter long stretch of Shweeb from above. Thanks to the fact that two tracks run parallel, Shweeb riders can race one another.
When the vehicles come together, the air resistance of each changes, with the front vehicle loosing vacuum at the rear and the back rider loosing headwind at the front. The two pods then carry on in tandem, as though they were one vehicle. They go faster than they would if they were traveling solo.
Riding the circuit for three rounds costs a little more than 20 (around $27) and the record for the whole 600 meters stands at 55 seconds.
Transport of the future? A computer graphic shows how the Shweeb train could be a solution to the crowded streets in big cities like New York, Shanghai or Hong Kong.
Google was looking for ideas that could change the world by helping as many people as possible. Out of 150,000 entries, 16 were chosen. After this Google users were able to decide which five ideas should be given money by Google. Shweeb was one of the winners.
No collisons and no need for over taking: When a faster driver runs into a slower one from behind there's no crash, thanks to an inbuilt shock absorber.
In 2006 researchers from the Technical University of Munich came up with VeloVent, where cyclists make their way around the city meters above the ground, riding a conventional cycle through transparent tubes, propelled by a permanently blowing tailwind.
