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Thank you for joining us again. Traffic problem in big cities keeps bothering
transport specialists in recent years, both in Israel and worldwide.
Crowdedness, air pollution, shortage of parking and endless traffic jams, have
brought up until today standard solutions
such as subway, light rail or advanced public transportation system, but facing
these solutions, there are also more original ones
ones that goes back to the source, the basics, the - bicycle! or, more precisely,
the Tricycle. All the details in the following story.
Imagine Tel-Aviv with no cars. Imagine streets with no traffic jams, and air that
is possible and even pleasant to breath
New initiative of urban transportation offers exactly this, but the substitute to
private cars is not some futuristic vehicle, but rather something that has
been around for years, something we all know and some of us even use daily -
bicycles.
Believe it or not, the source for this idea goes back in time, long before the world
saw the first car.
The city is San Francisco, CA, the year is 1873. According to the urban legend,
wagon horses couldn't climb the steep streets of the city,
their powers ran out, and they fell to their deaths. Young guy named Andrew
Hallidie, who witnessed the incident, decided to invent a wagon which will
be pulled by an underground cable instead of horses. The invention received
the name "Cable Car" and soon became one on the city distinct symbols
which still fully functions today.
So how does it work? The best way to understand it, is by imagining an aerial
tramway, only upside down.
A cable is running constantly in an underground trench. In order to start
moving. the car uses a grip the grabs the running cable.
To stop the car, the driver releases the cable, and pulls the brakes.
So simple, but so smart.
The concept of this project uses the same idea, but in a smaller scale,
personal scale. That's the reason for the name "Personal Public Transportation"
First we must say that the vehicle that is going to serve us here is a tricycle. You'll
understand why in a moment.
If you don't one of these, or if you came out of city, you'll be able to rent a trike in
one of the automated rental stations, located at the entries to the city, train
stations, etc.
As simple as renting a baggage cart at the airport, simple swipe your credit
card, and release the last vehicle from the machine.
But in order to ease on the need to pedal, and prevent us from reaching our
destination tired and sweating, here comes the main idea:
Rubber band that lays in a channel at the side of the road, is running in constant
motion. These channels will be called "trikemovers".
First, the rider needs to place the front wheel of his vehicle on the rubber band,
when the two rear wheels remain still on the road.
In this state the trike remains in place and only the front wheel is spinning.
To start moving all is takes is to press the front wheel brake, which works the
same as the clutch in our cars works.
When the front wheel comes to a complete "stop", the trike is running at
the same speed of the rubber band: 8.5 mph.
Like light rail tracks, the "trikemover" will be installed in all the main roads and
streets of the city.
The rubber bands will be in different colors and using maps available at the
rental stations, each rider will be able to build his route.
Unlike other public transportation means, there's no dependency on fixed routes,
station locations or schedule.
Also, just to remind you, these are still a regular tricycles, and you can ride it even
if it's just to the nearby grocery store.
Traffic problem in big cities is getting worse with time, and sooner than later
Tel-Aviv will also require its own solution.
When a subway or a light rail is not in the foreseeable future, the solution might
actually be - the tricycle.
And that wraps up our show thank you for watching