Train design proposes private seating pods
Australian designer Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan has designed a train for people who don't want to have anything to do with other passengers.
It reminds me of an interview I read with one of The Ramones. I can't remember if it was Dee Dee, Johnny, or Joey, but he said when The Ramones eventually got to the point where they hated each other, they used a special tour bus with four rooms built into it. After a show, they'd get on the bus without saying a word to each other, go into their room and shut the door. When they got to the next city, they'd get out without saying a word, do the gig and go back to their rooms on the bus. Avoid Interaction With Other Humans in New Train Design (Treehugger)
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I think this looks like a great design. I'd elaborate on that, but I really don't feel like talking about it with any of you people. Bye.
That's a great idea, until someone has incontinence issues at 200mph, three hours away from the destination.
Exactly. No way this will be abused.
Is this a local train or is it a long distance affair? If it's just a commuter train, I'm all for it. It'd be nice to skip all the crazy people and crackheads that are semi-living on the trains.
If it's a long distance train, bleh. Not only are you confined to a little space, a lot of the romanticism is lost when you don't talk to other passengers, maybe over drinks in the observation car.
Look, one of the major issues with public transportation is traveling with small children. When I was single, I hated to be around screaming infants and inquisitive toddlers. As a parent, I find dealing with my kids when they're not behaving to be very difficult. There is no conceivable way that I would travel in any space where I couldn't sit down with at least two kids if not 3.
Right now I'm paying a LOT of money to drive my kids to two different schools thanks to their age difference. I regularly leave my house with 4 people and drop off three before getting to my office where I pay over $200 per month to park. There is no public transportation plan that addresses this kind of use. Carpooling has not worked for us for multiple reasons. The school system does not provide buses for kids under a certain age and even when my kid will be old enough, they come to our neighborhood at 8:30am, at the time I need to be in my office.
Until there's a system that can address these issues, particularly transit in and out of schools that were purposely located near woods and fields and away from housing and businesses, then private vehicles are the only way to go.
As a young woman whose transit experiences have involved being groped, verbally harassed, and followed home, I would very much be willing to pay extra for a hidey hole away from the creeps.
#2 the seats double as toilets and the whole train is powered by the resultant, er, bio-fuel. Eco-friendly!
Well, it would slow down the spread of the coming plague that will surely decimate the human race-- getting on a crowded train no longer means having to inhale everyones sneeze-launched viruses.
To say nothing of having to inhale everyones b.o., halitosis, and farts for 200 miles.
this way the euthanasia gas can be selectively applied.
Takuan: I volunteer myself for that job.
when this catches on in Tokyo, they'll be able to stuff 7 people into each private unit.
Flawed design; neck strain resulting from off-angle porn screen.
It's beautiful...
/hates you all!
@#2, (heh heh #2) maybe the seat lifts to reveal a chemical toilet? This idea seems pretty nightmarish to me, like a futuristic prison transport. Picture the guy on the platform in riot gear and the passenger in an orange jumpsuit and black hood.
Worse than having to smell everyone's B.O. halitosis and farts for 200 miles is dealing with the steaming surprise or DNA sample that the previous occupant left.
...or being stuck with your own fart and not being able to move to the next car.
Let's not mention what will happen when the climate control inevitably quits working: "Train arrives in station, 800 passengers broiled to death. 'It was like riding in a Mini Bake Oven' states lone survivor."
I don't see anything good coming of this design other than the ease in identifying bodies after a train wreck.
Anyone want to guess how much extra a ticket in pod-class costs?
The economics of making individual pod/booths like this don't seem to make sense for commuter journeys where mass-movement of workers is the main aim, so the individual ticket price would have to be huge. And there's no bed for extended journeys.
I definitely like the idea of private booths though (like the older type of carriage), but they are less and less cost effective for short-run, rush-hour traffic, and so will probably never be anything more than highly-expensive, limitedly-available, class indicators, inhabited by the wealthy few.
Wait a minute here...isn't this what iphones and the like are for?
Agreed with the 'prison tranport' thoughts. This looks like punishment.
Reminds me of the apartment in "The 5th Element", compact to say the least
Just think of the murder mystery possibilities. Why the idea of a modern "Murder on the Orient Express" locked room mystery in these little pods is great. Combine it with a Speckled Band type of solution and voila!
Snakes on a Train, The Murder Mystery!
do they eject in a wreck?
Any way to get a 'slightly' bigger compartment? Privacy, just enough room for two - would make the distance fly by between say NYC and Boston...
Of course, you could have compartments like a lot of European -- especially British -- trains. So a family or group of friends could sit together.
And you could charge a little more for First Class and keep out the hoi-polloi. Which is kind of elitist, but if it would get more people riding trains that could be a price worth paying.
robrdavis@14 -- I agree completely. As a daily user of mass transit, I would not look forward to the nasty stuff that people would invariably do or leave behind in these pods. People are utterly disgusting even under threat of public reprobation. Remove that and it is a recipe for apocalyptic grossout. If you are not convinced, I have one word for you: usedcondoms.
#5 Neener--
If driving 3 children and parking are a strain on your time and finances, you could have stopped at 2. Or 1. Or 0.
Mass transit has problems. Yep, we know.
But I'd welcome another opportunity to keep screaming infants and annoying toddlers away from me.
Sticky seats. Yuck. Put this designer in the box marked "No more please". Certain security advantages though.
Uggh, brilliant. A "womb" for adults.
I'm really getting sick of the idea of privacy in everything nowadays.
Whether you are aware of it or not, public spaces are getting smaller and smaller. I think in 10-20 years we're going to see more and more studies of the sudden rise in Asperger syndrome across the "civilized" world.
Uh, I'd feel like I was in a coffin (or an MRI). No, thanks.
leg irons and handcuffs welded to the bench. CCTV in your face. Safe at last.
OR how about we just designate some more space on trains as quiet spaces. I was on Amtrak a few weeks ago and the quiet car was HEAVENLY. No listening to people yak away on their phones, no listening to other people's video games or inane conversations, just a lot of people who preferred to do their own thing in relative peace.
On my return trip, no quiet car available. I sat in front of a woman who set her 3 kids up with mini dvd players WITHOUT headphones, and whenever anyone spoke to her about volume she insisted the only alternative was to have her kids scream all the way from Boston to NYC. Also, surrounded by cellphones and got to sit next to a dude who would not shut up about how it was his first trip to NYC and he was going to party with all of his friends from boarding school, where did I like to "party", etc. At this point it was too crowded to move.
To sum up, my issue is not with public vs private space, but with the fact that behavior in public spaces is, well, bad.
Clearly this was not designed for the average North American @rse. Check out the tiny seat. Even the stick-insect mannequin has to twist her legs to one side to sit comfortably.
This looks perfectly designed to promote deep vein thrombosis, as on would be stuck in a narrow seated position for X length of time. Even airline seats seem healthier than this.
And, oh how much fun this will be for those with the least tendency to claustrophobia. Have you ever felt the least bit uncomfortable during a train delay outside the station, with the thought that you're in a small enclosed space? Multiply that feeling by aaaaaaargh!
@#30 POSTED BY LYDIA9
And behavior in public spaces can only get worse and worse the more you isolate people from each other based on petty issues.
A first class section of a plane or train is one thing. Complete isolation? Look, if you're going to do that, just drug people to sleep, stick them in a capsule, load them on a plane/train like cargo and then revive them at their destination.
First thought:
What happened to riding mass transit with friends?
Hard to pass the time with conversation when you're in separate pods.
Second thought:
On the local commuter train, the the event of disaster, there are emergency exits on each car on both sides of the train car, at two levels.
Even if 75% of the exits fail, for whatever reason, everyone can still exit safely.
With this pod design, if 75% of the exits fail... 75% of the passengers are stuck on the train. What a joy that would be.
I'm pretty sure this is what Homeland Security wants us to ride in when we're on any public transport.
The first murder on a train in Britain, that of Thomas Briggs in 1846, was facilited by the fact that trains then, like the one proposed above, opened out onto the platform, not into an interior hallway, thereby isolating the victim in his compartment. When Briggs's train reached its destination, he was gone, but a bloody crime scene remained. His body was later found on the tracks.
As the story at the link below relates, the crime "naturally led to widespread concern amongst the public that they too might fall victim to similar murderous outrages at the hands of violent assailants. In order to allay their fears the railway companies began installing small circular windows between train compartments, which very naturally became known as 'Müller's lights'. They were however soon superseded by the Regulation of Railways Act 1868, Section 22 of which made it compulsory to install a means of communication between the passenger and the train-crew and thus the communication cord was born."
http://everything2.com/e2node/The%2520North%2520London%2520Railway%2520Murder
The case is also discussed in EJ Wagner's amazing book "The Science of Sherlock Holmes."
open the door Hal....
a single seat doesn't give much opportunity to make out with your girlfriend/boyfriend..
I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
#33- as a first responder I would agree with you. This would be a nightmare to clear everyone off if there was any malfunction. For anyone in the L.A. area, can you imagine if the Metrolink crash in Glendale was with one of these? There would have been so many more casualties just because of the delay.
SteveKiwi "I'm pretty sure this is what Homeland Security wants us to ride in when we're on any public transport."
...unless you're on the No Ride list. You know that it's in the works.
This is just like the first class suite on the A380, but more efficient.
#2 fancycwabs, That's a great idea, until someone has incontinence issues at 200mph, three hours away from the destination.
That might be a problem for that 12 hour journey across the continental US, but surely for the length of a trip on a Japanese bullet train, the "problem" is manageable.
Yes, because what we, as a culture, need is to be more apart from our fellow humans
Can I have sex in there? Public transit is cheaper than a hotel.
as a frequent commuter here in northern cal on the capital corridor, there's a huge waste of energy hauling around these big steel shells for a limited number of people. i applaud the design effort as a start to get the cars reduced in size.
I want on that train. Now. That is my dream transport. No listening to roaring children, no being subjected to lurid renditions of other people's medical problems...bliss.
@#20 Annon.
You're too late. Snakes on a Train. My brother got me this as a joke for Christmas once upon a time. I still haven't watched all of it. Would need a good MST3K makeover to make it palatable.
#44 - if anything, this looks like more steel for an equal number of passengers.
Won't work. People don't travel in units of one only (not only family or parent with kids, but also school classes, collegues, lovers, whatever). So you need at least different sized compartments. Won't work also because the whole idea of selling overprized stuff in trains doesn't fit in that hole. What I could see as possible are extra-single-(or double)-person-compartments (not like here, but inside the train), first class. Like they exist in some slepper trains today. Or rather, tonight.
@23 Unfortunately, the only British trains you'll find the old-style first-class compartments on are on preserved tourist railways. Some time ago (possibly after the disastrous privatisation of the railways in the 1990s), they all got replaced with airline-style seats (though some with tables between pairs of seats); first class just means wider seats and possibly complimentary sandwiches/tea/WiFi.
Oh, man, that looks so claustrophobia-inducing.
It also reminds me of an unfinished parody of this sort of FUTURE TRANSIT! visualization that I did last Christmas: http://egypt.urnash.com/junk/intermodulapoddr
oh god yes! i fucking hate all the crowds and BO and general humanity i have to put up on my daily commute.
avoiding that would be my main reason for getting a car.
pack me in my nice little pod where i can read in peace and forget the rest of the plebs for a while
If driving 3 children and parking are a strain on your time and finances, you could have stopped at 2. Or 1. Or 0.
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First off, I don't have three children. I often have one of my kids' friends with me when we're off someplace. Secondly, while everyone knew that things would be more expensive in the future, the shifting percentage of money spent on gas (expensive) vs clothing (cheap imports) vs raises (slowed down after 2001) was not on any futurist's radar any more than my friends who thought their company would have a splashy IPO that would allow them to pay for their ARM. Which is to say, you've made some logical fallacies up there.
I used to have this fantasy where I would be able to get into a floating egg (well padded one inside), and just float to work while I napped comfortably.
This is one step closer!
@ #23 - When was the last time you were on a UK train? Compartments? Maybe in an episode of Poirot.
(quoted from #52)
while everyone knew that things would be more expensive in the future, the shifting percentage of money spent on gas (expensive) vs clothing (cheap imports) vs raises (slowed down after 2001) was not on any futurist's radar any more than my friends who thought their company would have a splashy IPO that would allow them to pay for their ARM. Which is to say, you've made some logical fallacies up there.
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Logical fallacies? Fewer kids = cheaper. Do you deny this?
No one knew exactly what the economy would be like X number of years down the road. But isn't it usually wise to to assume the worst and hope for the best? Keep expenses low and save/invest for future tough times.
In a post about a new concept in passenger train design, you commented with a sob story about how tough your situation is, only tangentially related to mass transit. You get exactly as much sympathy as I give to those who are defaulting on mortgages for homes they couldn't afford-- Zero.
Logical fallacies? Fewer kids = cheaper. Do you deny this?
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I deny that was your original point, yes.
I wrote no sob story! That was in your head, not mine. I am looking for public transportation solutions to difficult problems. I don't know what you carry to the table emotionally re: kids and families, but let's not have it involve my post, ok?
I think this is a great idea - put little pods where all the antisocial grumps who hate the idea of human contact can hide out.
Then the regular cars should be full of people who aren't simmering with resentment at having to breathe the same air with peasants. No more dirty scowls when I try to exchange smiles over a cute kid, or pay a stranger a random compliment, or pick up something someone dropped.
Even better, let there be segregated sections of the platform, so the grumps can step out into a cattle chute that hides them from the rest of us. They could put a guard tower up, so any unsociable grump who tries to talk or peek over the partitions can be tasered and thrown in a solitary detention cell to meditate on the error of his ways.
I'm liking this more and more.
has there ever been a train car with passenger controlled seat privacy partitions?
@Neener - i'm sure you weren't trying to put a sob story out there, but i also read your original post as kind of a "Buses and Trains suck, so I'm going to keep on driving everywhere, God Bless The USA" kind of rant.
and it really had nothing to do with private train seating pods.
but i feel your pain...
How can someone who travels every day with two or three children in tow utilize private seating pods when such children cannot sit by themselves without adult supervision. Also, how does this system improve public transportation access to standard terminals (schools) that are purposely located in out of the way areas (woods or fields)? because in my commuting, both are key issues not solved by this design.
If I were to suggest a design modification, it would include 4-person "family pods" and a computerized trolley-style track system that would allow centipede-like pods to connect to and disconnect from trains to allow for smaller "jitney-style" mini-trains to end at these non-standard terminals.
There! I've removed all personal references to create a far-duller, but more painfully elucidated comment.
Traveling with people who don't know where they're going (i.e., children, visiting friends, family members) is my biggest worry about this. Would there be communication between cars?