Simplicity itself. Outlaw motorized wheeled vehicles (electric wheelchairs included) and replace them with hovercraft.

Advantages: 1)No need for roads, bridges, tunnels, etc. Replace with posts (or buoys) every 100' or so. Reduce taxes appropriately. 2)Fender benders don't. 3)Teach the kids to drive while mowing the lawn. 4)That vacation to the Bahamas just got cheaper.

Disadvantages: 1)Still need parking lots. Parking spaces will probably have to be resized. So will garages 2)Kids mowing your lawn at 3 a.m. 3)The Bahamas will be crowded.
-- phoenix, Jun 14 2001

Leapin' hovercraft! http://www.hovercraft.org.uk/hcgb.htm
A hovercraft leaves water [phoenix, Jun 14 2001]

Hovertek specs http://www.neoteric...web/rescue/main.htm
"The Hovertrek will accommodate a gradient of 1 in 6 (16.7%)..." [phoenix, Jun 14 2001]

Diamagnetic Levitation http://skyview.vans...mersonwu/sld010.htm
See the next slide for a movie of the famous Levitating Frog. They're working on one big enough for people... [rmutt, Jun 14 2001]

While you wouldn't need paved roads you would need cleared ground (free of buildings and trees) for them to run on. You would also ned them to be free of anything resembling dust, sand or other forms of loose soil. Also they're very bad with slopes so you'll have to level a lot of ground.
-- sirrobin, Jun 14 2001


[sirrobin] I envision passenger cabins not unlike cars have now, so debris shouldn't be too much of a problem. Additionally, ground tends to be leveled for road construction anyway so there's no real added inconvenience/cost there. Perhaps we could exempt people who live on steep slopes or allow them to park at the bottom and use wheeled vehicles the rest of the way.
-- phoenix, Jun 14 2001


Passenger cabins might solve the debris problem for passengers but I wasn't thinking of them.
-- sirrobin, Jun 20 2001



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