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Pedal vehicle for traversing abandoned monorailway
French artist Vincent Lamouroux built this Pentacycle in 2002 to travel along the abandoned Aérotrain hovercraft monorailway built in the 1970s.
The Aérotrain was a hovercraft train developed in France from 1965 to 1977. The lead engineer was Jean Bertin.
The goal of the Aérotrain was similar to that of the magnetic levitation train: to suspend the train above the tracks so the only resistance is that of air resistance. Consequently the Aérotrain could travel at very high speeds with reasonable energy consumption and noise levels, but without the technical complexity and expensive tracks of magnetic levitation.
Five prototypes were built: 01, 02 (shown in picture), S44, I-80 and I-80 HV. I-80 was a full-size 80-passenger car running on 18 km of track. It established the world speed record for overland air cushion vehicles on March 5, 1974 with a mean speed of 417.6 km/h and a peak speed of 430.4 km/h.
This project was abandoned in 1977 due to lack of funding, the death of Jean Bertin, and the adoption of TGV by the French government as its high-speed ground transport solution.
Here's a video of the Aerotrain in action.
Vincent Lamouroux website | Aerotrain (wiki) | Via BoingBoing
Thu 07-Feb-08 | Posted in: Created in France
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Comments
Comment from TimmyG
Time: February 9, 2008, 10:31 pm
What is really a shame, and it most likely happened for them as it has in the U.S, would be that their idea was snuffed out by those whose pockets it wasn't padding. It's most likely the auto market that has its hands in suppressing things like this. Here in the US the Government has kept individuals and companies alike from even setting up test plots of high speed rail, which has been proposed on numerous occasions in the states.
I believe that those in charge realize once we can move across the state, or country in a high speed rail device - the taxes and sales of things like petroleum would fall - maybe even incredibly. True, it is a shame that things like this go against the system.
Comment from Daniel
Time: February 13, 2008, 9:18 pm
The reason we don't have this kind of transportation in the United States is not that evil corporations blocked its development. The real reason is that it isn't practical.
Large cities are too crowded to be able to fit additional infrastructure, especially on the scale of a monorail. Even if they could fit it, it wouldn't be cost effective. Notice how every form of public transportation is subsidized by the government.
The US is also huge, and the people are spread out. Most of the population lives in suburbs and rural areas. Again, it's not practical to set up an entirely new infrastructure. The monorail would have to make too many stops and travel too far.
Roads, on the other hand, are ideal. Drivers have complete independence. They can leave when they want, make unscheduled stops, carry what they please — they have the highest degree of control possible.
In summary, monorails, and any other system that calls for new infrastructure, is useless because cities are either too crowded or too spread out. As an example, look at the New York subway system. Look how large the city had to grow before a subway made economic sense. Even then, it still has to be subsidized by the government.
Comment from Kit
Time: February 14, 2008, 4:37 am
TimmyG- Europe fully supports rail transit, but rebuilding everything just wasn't as cost effective as working on getting the existing ril system up to better speeds.
Now, in the U.S. it's another story entirely.
We have so much govt funding in bus transit and Amtrak we could buy everyone in the country a bicycle !
But our nation, despite some over full population areas, is largely rural- we're not in Europe's shoes, and we can't shoehorn their system into our needs and expect it to fit.
What the U.S. needs is lower DEMAND for transit - so many of the jobs that could be telecommuted simply aren't, out of management paranoia. And a LOT of the city transit system's overcrowding could be eliminated with a rise in telecommuting.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: February 16, 2008, 12:05 am
Daniel;
I suppose in your short-sighted view travel by airplane isn't practical either, due to the limited location of airports scattered across the country. Hardly any of them are in the suburbs or rural areas, where "all the people are."
Also, as far as a government subsidy is concerned, I think this only markedly highlights TimmyG's suggestion that if it's not padding the pockets of the people who are rich and powerful enough to make massive campaign contributions to figureheads who support their businesses and financial interests, then of course that sort of system wouldn't get any subsidies.
Maybe some places don't have room for the infrastructure, but I'm sure a lot of places can make do. Think about all railroad across the country that's no longer in use. I live in Detroit, and one of our largest buildings, the Michigan Central Depot is abandoned and rotting. Falling into disrepair along with the miles of track that lead to and away from it. Also, if there's no room for it in the big city, why not put it near the suburbs, or in an open rural area. You know, where "all the people are."
Roads are ideal, this is true. They are ideal for short trips, or trips that will involve frequent stops, or even for people who prefer to drive because they have a trunk full of drugs they need to take cross-country. However, when looking into a high-speed, low cost of operating, and low energy consumption method of travel, a monorail hits the nail on the head. Japan already has one, and they're way smarter than we are already.
Comment from Jon
Time: February 18, 2008, 6:07 am
I can't begin to imagine how much money was spent developing this to point shown in this vid. Such a waste.
The future is behind us.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: February 20, 2008, 6:48 am
yes, Daniel is a good example of why progress is so slow. Time and time again cities do the cost benefit analysis of road widening vs LRT or monorail or skytrain…. and the LRT always comes out on top. problem is people are lazy, slow to change or have hidden agendas and so public transit rarely get implemented
Comment from anon
Time: February 9, 2008, 9:12 pm
i find it awesome to think that they had that sort of idea/technology back then. It's a shame that the people
with ideas ahead of their time never really get what
they need to make these things progress