Have you heard of the Shweeb? Me neither. But apparently, it’s a rather fun little tourist attraction located in Rotorua, New Zealand. Basically, it’s a monorail system. Unlike traditional monorails, however, this one has numerous cars, each of which can hold one person comfortably. What’s more, each car is pedal-powered, so the passenger is actively keeping the car going.
More than 30,000 people have hopped inside the Shweeb and raced around its track in Rotorua, with users stating that it feels “different” and “exhilarating”. The idea first came to a frustrated commuter trying to navigate the streets of Tokyo – “I tried cycling here but that turned out to be a pretty dangerous activity so the idea just occurred to me to be able to cycle over the top of it,” says Shweeb creator Geoff Barnett. And after spending six years combining monorail and cycling technology, the Shweeb was born. Unfortunately councils couldn’t commit to making an untested technology into a means of public transport, so instead it went to Rotorua, where it became an adventure tourist attraction.
Now though, the Shweeb may become a viable means of public transport after all – thanks to Google. Read the rest of this entry »