Google’s Project 10100 was a contest held in part to celebrate their 10 year anniversary and to help those who want to help others. It had called upon the world to submit their world-changing-and-revolutionizing ideas. Over 150,000 ideas flowed to their vote desk out of which only 16 made it to the final vote desk. Finally, 5 ideas won the competition and Google gave a total of $10 million to five inspiring organizations that are ceaselessly trying to work on global challenges.
Shweeb’s Peddle-Powered Bike Monorail, one of the winners, received $1 million to fund their research and development aimed at testing their innovative transportation for urban setting. It is a long cylindrical plastic tube in which the traveler will have to cycle his way to the target destination while he his hung upside down from a rail. You don’t have to be in one of these tubes to know how uncomfortable and tiring this would be, but Google looked past this human inconvenience and thought it could transform the way one travels around concrete cities.
As Shweeb calls it, the user-powered system has good speed as of one its medelivers an impressive speed of up to 45km/h. The monorail has a 200m cycle track in Rotorua, New Zealand, where it is touted as an “adrenalin-fueled” adventure. The makers have equipped the bike-powered monorail with seven gears and reclining position to render comfort and reduce drag. We hope the concept evolves as and when its use in concrete cities catches up.
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