this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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Public Transport
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A series of platforms that can raise on demand. Couple hugs poles around town in clusters of destinations and the tiles would rotate or swap positions to where you are somehow.
A smaller number of much bigger poles with not necessarily bigger platforms that crosses bigger distances at once. Cross country trips would involve several exchanges of platforms, not unlike connecting flights or trains, but it would have a better fuel system.
Maybe a whole third or fourth tier of them for local, regional, interstate, and long distance. I used the word platforms, but given the speed the bigger ones would move at it would probably be more like one of those observation tower-like rides at a theme park. Sometimes you'd stay on the same one as it got picked up by a different tower, sometimes you'd switch.
Not feasible, but a fun idea.
I understand going up, where would the platforms go to? Just up?
In my head the platforms all reach platforms from another tower, enabling passing from one to the other.
Sorry, but I'm having trouble visualising this in my head. When and how do these platforms go horizontally?
They rotate around these poles. So it's not exactly horizontal, more like an exaggerated version of going to a theme park and getting on, for example, the swing ride. You usually aren't in the same place when you get back down on the ground as you were when it started moving. But I'm imagining other swing rides being close enough to also connect to that point tangentially, and you're using the fact that by daisy-chaining the rides on different poles allows you to reach different places.
The version in my head has way bigger radii, obviously, but that's the gist.
I get it now thanks. That's definitely novel to me. It could make for a fun method of transportation at a theme park!
I thought so.
You'd need a lot more of them than there are airports, and I have no ideas to make it doable or sustainable.