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People Pump

 Transportation system for commuters using pumped water
  (+3, -1)
(+3, -1) 		  [vote for,
against]

Rather than have complex subway systems using electricity, trains, signals, etc, etc, just half-fill the tunnels with water flowing in the right direction, give everybody a life jacket and let them be swept to their destination. The bits between stations could be quite fast-moving water, but the station sections quite wide with shallow areas to allow the people to get out.
—Harry Mudd, Oct 16 2003

incorporate this? http://www.halfbake...for_20dare_20devils
[po, Oct 04 2004]

Lazy River Office http://www.halfbake...zy_20River_20Office
The scaled down version. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       I like it. I like it a lot. Kind of like one of those "Rapids" bits in the fancier swimming pool complexes. You would have to remember to leave a change of clothes at work though, unless we would all be provided with baggy drysuits.   

       Can we have slides to get in? Whhheeeeeeeeee!
—squeak, Oct 16 2003
   

       //the right direction//
Water flows downhill, how does everyone get home at the end of the day?
—krelnik, Oct 16 2003
   

       So now you can drown on the way to work, instead of being run over. (Of course, if you live in Staten Island, you already have that option, I guess.)
—DrCurry, Oct 16 2003
   

       <hands on hips> and when I write to both of you enquiring as to your health, I expect a reply, pretty damn quick!
—po, Oct 16 2003
   

       call it 'The Birth Canal Commute'.
—aquamarine, Oct 16 2003
   

       If it was pneumatic, air, (like a giant size that drive thru banks use) it'd be a gas.
—alfold1, Oct 17 2003
   

       I would like to have a SUV water vehicle that would knock swimmers out in case of collision. If there could be a way for it to use extra water and cost quite a bit more that would be nice.
—NotSoQuick, Nov 01 2003
   

       krelinik: it could be circular, providing a different view going to and fro work and an escheresque landscape overall.   

       personally i'd personalize my commute with an interesting innertube. but that's just me.
—mintygreencow, Dec 11 2003
   

       <MIB II>"Yeah, you used to love bein' flushed when you was an agent. Yeah, every Saturday night you'd be like, 'Flush me J. Flush me.' and I'd be like, 'Naw'."
—RayfordSteele, Dec 12 2003
   

       I'd use it! Could we get heated water in Chicago in the winter?   

       Of course, some jackass would put a moter on their tube, and then we'd all need moters, and then we're back to driving, basically. [+]
—sycorob24, Dec 12 2003
   

       Please don't pee in our mass transit system, we don't drive in your toilet.
—cljudge, Dec 19 2003
   

       Perhaps if the mode of transport were small boats instead of life jackets, this would be more practical. I can envision two separate streams, so that traffic could go in both directions. They would have to be pumped, of course, not just gravity-driven. It would be a gigantic "tunnel of love" ride. Still, it's hard to imagine that this would be better than a 40 mph commuter train every ten minutes.
—ConsultingDetective, Jan 31 2004
   

       EE 'Doc' Smith, about 1940, Sylark of Space series
—unclepete, Feb 12 2004
   

       This idea reminds me of tubing down a river, many years ago. Where was I going, where to get out? Those questions bothered me for miles, but slowly faded into insignificance as the bottle of vodka tied to my tube steadily emptied. If it wasn’t for those rapids, and that rock that smashed the bottle to bits while it was still half full, well, I’d have never gotten out until I reached the ocean.
—pluterday, Feb 12 2004
   

       Sounds fast and danger. Electricity goes out, commuters trapped in huge logpiles underground, Sewage backs up, thousands die, seagulls swarm and attack, winter sets in, the earth splits open and swallows rush hour traffic, etc.   

       That said, I like it. +   

       Is it too late to ask you to switch this to another category? It belongs in public transportation, methinks.
—k_sra, Feb 12 2004
   

       they already have these at water parks, and they should stay there.   

       but gimme the pneumatic version. oh yeah!
—changokun, Feb 20 2004
   

       Yes, a pneumatic version would be nice. you'd have to have a travelling "wave" of air to ride on, or you'd never go anywhere. The various people in that case would be (a) the people with massive devices that take up the whole tube and kill the airflow for everyone else; (b) the people in little streamlined things wth a shaped carbon-fiber wing at the back that would travel at blinding speed, and (c) the the teenagers with little homebuilt things that are rickety and barely protective of the driver, but insanely fast and loud (perhaps recorded air-raid sirens, explosions, gorilla howls, et cetera?)
—Macwarrior, Feb 20 2004
   

       gets my damp croissant any day. esp. the stations.

ps. category : public:transportation: mass transit ?
—neilp, May 25 2004
   

       Why not fill them with water completely, jack up the pressure and issue scuba gear? Use the torpedo tube principle. OK, so you may get a few more deaths, but think how much later you could get up if your journey to work was conducted at 140mph.
—neuro, Apr 13 2006
   
      
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