If the U.S. doesn't take this on, I hope another country with a big appetite for enormous public transit projects takes this on. Japan, Korea, and China, I'm looking at you...
Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
21–30 of 202 posts
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#22Nice font. But looks good so far. EDIT: There's a bit of minimally technical details, but this is neither highly polished (public-perception-focused) nor highly technical (engineer-focused). Is it a good balance or would one of the extremes have been better?
I think the occasional mention of safety on high-speed rail is a bit unfair, considering that good systems like the Japanese Shinkansen have never had a fatal accident:
"Risk of derailment is also not to be taken lightly, as demonstrated by several recent fatal train accidents."
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#23The focus from people on bathrooms is puzzling to me. I've been on buses, without facilities, that go for hours without stopping. This is a 35 minute ride with restricted movement, if you greatly fear being able to hold it for that long, there are other, less efficient methods of transport to accommodate you.
On a bus you have the chance to get off every 5-10 minutes, that's a big difference. There will be thousands of passengers on that day. Just imagine if you have to do this trip 10 times a day every day for 100 days, will you still take risk?
Update (since I've been downvoted):
All these buses analogy isn't exactly the same case because they still have the option to stop somewhere, which give the passengers the assurance that if they really can't hold it's not the end of the world. Taking that into consideration, I think it could solve most people's bathroom concern by adding bathroom stops to the loop, in the case of semi-emergency, ideally a pod should be able to make a stop upon request within 5-10 minutes without disrupting other pods. Some financial incentive might be needed for encouraging people to hold longer but I do see legal risks in that approach.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#24What's the ideal format for an open source whitepaper? Certainly not PDF. Straight up HTML on Github?
latex.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#25It's interesting that the Shinkansen has raised sections built on pylons, especially the new bits they built in the last few years in the built-up areas in the north of Japan.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#26Claustrophobes will not be eager to travel in this fashion.
Then use http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130812-planes-that-can-pic.... Compared to that, this Hyperloop idea is best described as "No pilot. Less space than a 747", by teenage boys.
On the other, more important hand, at firt view, this looks feasible to me (taking into account who published it)
I do wonder about the "little noise" claim, though. That fan a few meters in front of you that compresses air so that you can float on it will not be noise-free. I also think those tubes could start resonating at times.
Finally: only about a thousand passengers per hour or, alternatively, going at close to the speed of sound, on guaranteed collision course, with 30s intervals?
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#27The focus from people on bathrooms is puzzling to me. I've been on buses, without facilities, that go for hours without stopping. This is a 35 minute ride with restricted movement, if you greatly fear being able to hold it for that long, there are other, less efficient methods of transport to accommodate you.
On a bus you have the chance to get off every 5-10 minutes, that's a big difference. There will be thousands of passengers on that day. Just imagine if you have to do this trip 10 times a day every day for 100 days, will you still take risk? Update (since I've been downvoted): All these buses analogy isn't exactly the same case because they still have the option to stop somewhere, which give the passengers the assura…
That depends where in the world you are. I've been on many long distance buses in Asia that might not stop for 4 or 5 hours.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#28The focus from people on bathrooms is puzzling to me. I've been on buses, without facilities, that go for hours without stopping. This is a 35 minute ride with restricted movement, if you greatly fear being able to hold it for that long, there are other, less efficient methods of transport to accommodate you.
On a bus you have the chance to get off every 5-10 minutes, that's a big difference. There will be thousands of passengers on that day. Just imagine if you have to do this trip 10 times a day every day for 100 days, will you still take risk? Update (since I've been downvoted): All these buses analogy isn't exactly the same case because they still have the option to stop somewhere, which give the passengers the assura…
I have taken a 40min commuter bus everyday for nearly 2 years and I never had to get off early to use the bathroom.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#29The focus from people on bathrooms is puzzling to me. I've been on buses, without facilities, that go for hours without stopping. This is a 35 minute ride with restricted movement, if you greatly fear being able to hold it for that long, there are other, less efficient methods of transport to accommodate you.
On a bus you have the chance to get off every 5-10 minutes, that's a big difference. There will be thousands of passengers on that day. Just imagine if you have to do this trip 10 times a day every day for 100 days, will you still take risk? Update (since I've been downvoted): All these buses analogy isn't exactly the same case because they still have the option to stop somewhere, which give the passengers the assura…
You're thinking city buses. I'm thinking long-haul busses (like greyhound in the US). Greyhound buses likely have facilities, what I'm actually talking about are the buses used a core parts of the transportation infrastructure all over South America. Many of these also have facilities but I've been on many where the bathroom isn't functioning or just plain isn't there. You can easily travel for 30 minutes to an hour without stopping.
We're largely (70%) talking about commuters here, they're taking this twice a day, most days out of the year. Again, I'm not sure why for 90%+ of people that this would be an issue.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#30It's too bad the tubes and trains can't be made transparent. Imagine the view!