Living not too far away from the place where the Moncocab is being developed and tested, I’ve actually had the chance to see them in person and actually sit in one (They are much more spacious than Adam makes them seem)
This system is not intended for mass transport.
It is intended for rural places, connections between villages and small towns. A connection between bigger cities with these obviously makes no sense - for villages however these could be absolutely great.
Also, maybe this is worth mentioning. Monocab ain’t a profit oriented company (yet). It is a project by the Technical University Ostwestfalen-Lippe in cooperation with some other universities.
I can see why people are sceptical - but really this is a proof of concept. maybe it’ll turn out a flop - maybe it’ll work great. I am willing to see where they take it.
I’d think a short, reversible, single-car tram (like Coventry’s VLR) would work a hell of a lot better for connections between villages/small towns than Uber for rails with needlessly complicated gyroscopic bs.
Well, keep in mind we’re talking about long single tracks spanning many villages and towns - in places where there is not a ton of demand. The train would: 1. Rarely be there in the moment somebody actually needs it 2. Almost always be empty.
Notice I said the monocab ain’t meant as “mass” transport. You wont see 30 monocab back on back all the time - you’ll see one, maybe, every half an hour or so - but they’ll be there when somebody needs them - not uselessly when nobody cares.
These are much more, as somebody else already pointed out in the videos comments, I believe, indented to replace call busses - instead of having to call a bus and wait half an hour or more, you can just hop into a mobocab which is on standby and get moving.
transport to other towns is generally not a spur of the moment thing. checking a timetable is a lot easier for people in rural villages than using an app. one train every two hours is the norm here, and they stop at villages of a few hundred people.
I live in a rural area - the main reason I often do not use public transport is the fact that it runs way too infrequently - and depending on the holidays of a neighboring state may run even less often. As much as I would love to use public transport, over here where I live, it often just doesn’t fit. A quick trip somewhere would turn into a 4 hour journey.
Also, as I already commented under another comment, as far as I understood, the monocabs will be on stand-by at every station.(they might’ve changed that though, in which case I fully agree with you - an app is stupid)
i used to live in a one-bus-a-day place so i get it. not that there was ever a railway there.
i don’t understand how they could possibly be stand-by; the wheel profile makes it impossible for them to switch tracks so they can only run on fully single-track lines, meaning that any pod waiting at station B would impede all traffic going from A-C.
The monopods would essentially all move - Dunno if that’d work well in practice - never said it would - I just think we should judge the idea to be “techbro bullshit” just yet without having it really seen anywhere close to action.
you can just hop into a mobocab which is on standby and get moving
The train would: 1. Rarely be there in the moment somebody actually needs it 2. Almost always be empty.
The mobocabs won’t actually be there when someone needs them, either. They’re on rails. They’re not going to just be hanging out somewhere in the middle of the line so they can show up in a couple of minutes, they’ll be on standby at a trainshed on either end of the line. It’s going to take like 30 minutes for one to arrive – at that point you might as well just have a tram that comes every 30 minutes or so
And that’s where you might have a misconception. As I said, I’ve seen them in real life before and had the opportunity to talk to some people working on them.
As far as I understood, they will have stations. (I read your message as you assume they’ll stop at any point on the track - they don’t). They will stand by these stations and move along to make space for any subsequent monocab.
Living not too far away from the place where the Moncocab is being developed and tested, I’ve actually had the chance to see them in person and actually sit in one (They are much more spacious than Adam makes them seem)
This system is not intended for mass transport. It is intended for rural places, connections between villages and small towns. A connection between bigger cities with these obviously makes no sense - for villages however these could be absolutely great.
Also, maybe this is worth mentioning. Monocab ain’t a profit oriented company (yet). It is a project by the Technical University Ostwestfalen-Lippe in cooperation with some other universities.
I can see why people are sceptical - but really this is a proof of concept. maybe it’ll turn out a flop - maybe it’ll work great. I am willing to see where they take it.
I’d think a short, reversible, single-car tram (like Coventry’s VLR) would work a hell of a lot better for connections between villages/small towns than Uber for rails with needlessly complicated gyroscopic bs.
Well, keep in mind we’re talking about long single tracks spanning many villages and towns - in places where there is not a ton of demand. The train would: 1. Rarely be there in the moment somebody actually needs it 2. Almost always be empty.
Notice I said the monocab ain’t meant as “mass” transport. You wont see 30 monocab back on back all the time - you’ll see one, maybe, every half an hour or so - but they’ll be there when somebody needs them - not uselessly when nobody cares.
These are much more, as somebody else already pointed out in the videos comments, I believe, indented to replace call busses - instead of having to call a bus and wait half an hour or more, you can just hop into a mobocab which is on standby and get moving.
transport to other towns is generally not a spur of the moment thing. checking a timetable is a lot easier for people in rural villages than using an app. one train every two hours is the norm here, and they stop at villages of a few hundred people.
I live in a rural area - the main reason I often do not use public transport is the fact that it runs way too infrequently - and depending on the holidays of a neighboring state may run even less often. As much as I would love to use public transport, over here where I live, it often just doesn’t fit. A quick trip somewhere would turn into a 4 hour journey.
Also, as I already commented under another comment, as far as I understood, the monocabs will be on stand-by at every station.(they might’ve changed that though, in which case I fully agree with you - an app is stupid)
i used to live in a one-bus-a-day place so i get it. not that there was ever a railway there.
i don’t understand how they could possibly be stand-by; the wheel profile makes it impossible for them to switch tracks so they can only run on fully single-track lines, meaning that any pod waiting at station B would impede all traffic going from A-C.
The monopods would essentially all move - Dunno if that’d work well in practice - never said it would - I just think we should judge the idea to be “techbro bullshit” just yet without having it really seen anywhere close to action.
i mean, before they can show something that will actually work, it may as well not exist.
The mobocabs won’t actually be there when someone needs them, either. They’re on rails. They’re not going to just be hanging out somewhere in the middle of the line so they can show up in a couple of minutes, they’ll be on standby at a trainshed on either end of the line. It’s going to take like 30 minutes for one to arrive – at that point you might as well just have a tram that comes every 30 minutes or so
And that’s where you might have a misconception. As I said, I’ve seen them in real life before and had the opportunity to talk to some people working on them. As far as I understood, they will have stations. (I read your message as you assume they’ll stop at any point on the track - they don’t). They will stand by these stations and move along to make space for any subsequent monocab.