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Maglev Personal Transportation System Set For Trial In Tel Aviv

Posted by Unknown on from the monorail-monorail-monorail dept.

andhar (194607) writes The BBC reports a system of two-passenger maglev pods suspended from 500 meters of elevated tracks will be constructed on the campus of Israel Aerospace Industries as a pilot for a larger deployment in Tel Aviv. The article claims a top speed of 150 mph (240 kph) for these autonomous "personal rapid transit" pods. From the article: "Joe Dignan, an independent smart city expert, said the system represented 'a hybrid between existing infrastructure and autonomous vehicles.' 'It will get the market in the mood for autonomous vehicles — it is not too scary, is cheaper than building out a train line and uses part of the urban landscape, 20 feet above ground, that isn't currently used.'"

11 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. SkyTran! by Raumkraut · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fide, electrified, one-car, SkyTran!

    What'd I say?

    SkyTran!

    What's it called?

    SkyTran!

  2. Long Overdue Use of "free space" by BoRegardless · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The concept of using the equivalent of ski lift pods above ground between light poles has always made a lot of sense to me.

    I've wondered why downtown city planners haven't implemented this type of transit as it could potentially alleviate all sorts of congestion for relatively "long walks" people have to make in dense areas.

    1. Re:Long Overdue Use of "free space" by Megane · · Score: 2

      Well, first, someone has to actually get up there to do the damage. When it's 20 feet in the air, you have to work to cause problems. Sure, overhead freeway signs get tagged every now and then, but this is all very much high-hanging fruit. Also, this can already be done with ground rail, but I haven't heard about a major epidemic of rail sabotage. People getting hit by trains because of stupidity or stalling on the crossing is significantly more common. There perhaps should be some concern that this is in a place where terrorists like to blow things up, but even they know that with no transportation infrastructure, they won't be able get around to blow more things up.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    2. Re:Long Overdue Use of "free space" by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One thing I like about the SkyTran concept in particular is also something I liked about Hyperloop: reduced columnar loading. Versus having actual trains running elevated, you have many, much smaller individual loads. It's closer to having a low, constant load then a periodic, very high load like you get with trains. The less the peak load, the smaller, lighter, and cheaper you can build the columns and track.

      I see they've dumped their old, aerodynamic-disaster "fully egg-shaped" cars that was all over their old promotional materials in favor of ones with streamlining that works in the real-world (egg-shaped front, rear taper). Good to see.

      SkyTran seems to address well one of the three main complaints about public transport (the "It doesn't go straight from where you are to where you want to go" aspect, meaning you have to wait for the right line, go on pointless detours, sometimes to exchanges, etc). It doesn't however seem to offer a solution to the other two (the lack of terminals being present both directly at the start of your destination and the end of your destination, rather than having to walk for blocks or more on each end of the journey; and, inability to store things in your vehicle / take large objects with you). Still, it's a start. Combined with a small and/or foldable piece of personal transport tech, one could take a number of big steps in the direction of making it as convenient as personal vehicle ownership.

      --
      "Close the door! What, were you born in a barn?" -- Police chief, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
  3. Re:start up nation by CanHasDIY · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the start up nation...at it again. how is it that a country of 7M people struggling for peace amongst hostile neighbors continues to out innovate the world.

    Well, aside from the fact that the Israeli government's actions have been anything but a "struggle for peace," I fail to see how talking about building something that I remember seeing in a movie from the 1970's* is all that "innovative."

    Perhaps if y'all want to be 'innovative,' you should try showing some humility for once.

    * Logan's Run, in case you were wondering.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  4. Re:start up nation by turp182 · · Score: 2

    I RTFA and the company, SkyTran, is based in California, USA. In fact, the CEO is a former Navy Seal (he also has a lot of international experience, but none previously involving Israel, from what is listed).

    They do have an attorney in Israel.

    http://skytran.us/skytran-team...

    This doesn't explain why Tel Aviv was chosen as the first build out.

    --
    BlameBillCosby.com
  5. Re:Just a stopgap till self-driving cars by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2

    This is all nice and good, but I feel that public transport is just a stopgap till we get (pooled) self-driving cars. I'm talking about something like uber but with electric self-driving cars.

    Which is just a stopgap until we develop teleportation technology. Which is just a stopgap until we evolve beyond the need for transportation at all.

    Yes, I'm being sardonic. I tend to get that way when I see people essentially whining that existing technology only exists because non-existent technology doesn't exist - It just seems like a silly way of thinking.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  6. Vaporware. Totally. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1. Only 200 meters of track is supposed to be built. it is projected to be finished by end of 2015.
    http://www.iai.co.il/2013/32981-46034-he/IAI.aspx (Hebrew; the English version of the article strangely does not mention the track length)

    2. The BBC article claims speeds of 70km/h. definitely not 240kph. read TFA.

    3. Earlier incarnations of this story claimed implementations in the Tel-Aviv harbour area or alternatively in Atidim hi-tech park in Tel-Aviv:
    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-12/nasa-pod-transports-close-to-reality-in-tel-aviv
    pay attention to the estimate of 18 months to finish construction. this was in March. 2012. never happened.

    4. Israel has an excellent reputation for innovation. no argument there.

    5. Israel also has a reputation for infrastructure projects that take much longer to complete than planned. and for neglecting to invest in infrastructure in general.

    6. Tel-Aviv has no subway and no tram. traffic and parking are pretty bad. talks of building a subway have been around for ~40 years. no government/mayor is actually doing that because it will take more than one term to complete...

    7. in the entire Israel there is 1 (one) operational subway line, the Carmelit, which is a whopping 1.8km (1.1 mile) long. it was build in the 1950s.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelit

    disclaimer: I live in Tel-Aviv.

  7. Re:start up nation by Rei · · Score: 2

    $360 for every man, woman, and child courtesy of US taxpayers goes a long way. That's 5% of all government revenues. To scale it to US equivalents, its as if the US got 10 NASAs for free.

    --
    "Close the door! What, were you born in a barn?" -- Police chief, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
  8. The best option to move forward... by msc.buff · · Score: 2

    A skyTran system is the best option for meeting personal transportation needs in the foreseeable future. Self driving cars are a waste of time/money/engineering because they will take decades to develop and still have to drive on our crappy over-crowded roads. We are running out of room to build new roads to handle the current traffic let alone any future requirements. Also, cars are not very efficient. Why transport 1000s of lbs of steel and plastic just to haul a few hundred lbs of flesh from point A to point B?

    Trains and buses fail the usability test because people hate traveling like herd animals all packed into one big crowded and smelly car. People also can't control their travel as much and have to match the train/bus schedule.

    I don't see skyTran as replacing the car so much as more of taking the major load off of cars. Commuter traffic would be greatly eliminated in high population zones if all the 9-5 traffic was dumped onto a skyTran.

    Imagine jumping in a pod and cruising downtown for the game/concert and then zipping home. No high rise parking structures...no rip-off parking fees. The stadium would have an enlarged hub to handle surges in traffic with ease.

    Imagine the competition to UPS and FedEx if new companies could use a Country-wide skyTran. Dedicated hubs could be connected to the system and same day shipping and delivery would be common place.

    Imagine a manufacturer with their own hub. They could have skyTran pods delivering parts directly from their suppliers.

    Imagine a farmers market fed directly with refrigerated skyTran pods.

    Imagine all the fiber which could be laid on top of the skyTran network which provided Gbps Internet while you traveled in comfort.

    I have been following the efforts of skyTran for YEARS and I am stoked that they are finally getting to build a system.

  9. Why Maglev? by GrahamCox · · Score: 2

    What's the advantage of Maglev here? It is just using energy to do something that a wheel would do perfectly well without expending energy. The small frictional advantage doesn't seem to be something worth adding all the extra complexity and energy expenditure for.