Ever since that cool traffic-straddling bus from last year turned out to be a scam, the world of suitable-wacky futuristic public transport design has been itching to fill the void. Well, look no further than the Gyrocar.
The idea is the brainchild of Russian-based designers Dahir Insaat. It’s rather hard to explain with words (it's best seen in the video below) but it essentially consists of disc-shaped trams that are able to cruise above multiple levels of vehicles. These trams are kept balanced on their stilts using giant gyroscopes. The design would allow this new form of vehicles to travel on the current inner-city roads, yet are elevated above the car level traffic, allowing them to cruise above the traffic jams below.
Although some of the Gyrocars just look like conventional public transport on the inside, some of the cabins also look pretty fancy too, with leather sofas and computer screens.
“It is absolutely safe in both ecological and physical terms. It cannot cause serious injury,” said Dahir Insaat in the design's video description. “The most it would do if it hit a person who is standing on the monorail would be to push him out of its way. In a word, Anna Karenina [a tragic character from a Leo Tolstoy novel] would not have been able to commit suicide if she threw herself in front of a gyro monorail, no matter how much she wanted to."
As for whether we’re going to see these gyrocars roll down Fifth Avenue anytime soon, it’s not certain. Many of these exciting designs remain as visionary concepts. There also appear to be many practical problems that needed to be ironed out first, for example, pedestrians below would not be visible from the gyrocars' windshields.
Nevertheless, the designer behind the project, Dahir Semenov, is extremely enthusiastic about their concept and keen to get it off the ground, so to speak.
“I do not have the slightest doubt that this mode of transportation will supersede buses, trams, and trolleybuses in the cities of the future,” he wrote.
“I am not only ready, but I consider it my direct duty as the creator of the idea and patent owner… to produce second- and third-level gyroscopic transport. I've been developing this idea for two years now, and I'm prepared to bring it to fruition in practice.”
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