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Pod Cars

 Personal Train Transportation
  (+2)
(+2) 		  [vote for,
against]

I don't like trains because I have to sit next to stinky scary people, and it doesn't do door-to-door.

I propose an alternate train system - pod cars.

Everyone owns their own pod. They can be single seat, two seat or four. They have standard dimensions and attachments, but otherwise are yours to customise.

You summon a rover, which drives up to your pod and clips underneath. The rover automatically drives you to the nearest station, and an overhead crane loads you on to the train that takes you to the destination where you disembark the pod onto another train, a rover or pod parking. Parking is stacked.

—FloridaManatee, Jun 19 2003

[link]






       That has been proposed before but expensive to implement. It would be nice to see this in many places.
—sartep, Jun 19 2003
   

       Bun for reading my mind, FloMan.
—thumbwax, Jun 19 2003
   

       my other pod is a pea-pod.
—po, Jun 19 2003
   

       my other pod is identical
—Worldgineer, Jun 19 2003
   

       what were the pod people?
—po, Jun 19 2003
   

       See Bucky Fuller's idea. Never baked, but proposed, shetched, published. He thought the transportation pod would integrate with planes as well.
—oxen crossing, Jun 19 2003
   

       I already have a pod with built in rover. Its called a car. Now, if you could convince Amtrak to make their cars wide enough for my car to drive on from the side (as in a regular parking lot) we are in business.
—kbecker, Jun 20 2003
   

       but i LIKE meeting new people. i think too much emphasis is placed in our culture with technology that hides & separates us from other humans. Get some nose plugs! learn to speak Arabic! Ask the guy you're sitting next to where he got that cool tattoo! People just don't socialize anymore unless it's anonymously thru um...well stuff like this.
—kissing bandit, Sep 18 2003
   

       [kb], where did you get that cool tatoo?
—Worldgineer, Sep 18 2003
   

       If your car was less than 102" long, it would fit sideways on a flatcar.
—whlanteigne, Apr 12 2013
   

       A smart car can fit sidewise on a flatcar. About.   

       I would like to see a transportation system with shortened low-powered, ultra-lightweight electric cars could take you at low speeds around town, and then when you want to travel a distance you pull up onto double-decked train cars and get a charge as you head to your debarkation point.   

       "but i LIKE meeting new people." I don't mind meeting new people, but I hate being on buses or trains with people who try to appear menacing by wearing gang-wear or people who angry-shout instead of talk. You know, like is normal in Chicago or Detroit.
—Kansan101, Apr 13 2013
   

       A Smart Car just about meets the definition of "pod car" already.
—whlanteigne, Apr 13 2013
   
      
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