Have you ever been stuck in traffic, fuming over the fumes and wishing you could just, say, zipline across it all to your destination? That’s essentially the plan laid out by a Japanese company, Zip Infrastructure.
Headed by an optimistic 23-year-old, the company is testing prototypes in the mountain city of Odawara while building its first 12-passenger capsules. The plan for the electrically-powered system is to create a network of ziplines. The cars, unlike a normal zipline harness, can make tight turns and branch off onto other lines, as seen in this prototype video. Dispatch would be by digital app.
The system, called Zippar, is estimated to cost about 20% less than building a monorail system, does not require a driver, and most significant: It would move thousands of people through spaces—the air—where there’s now no traffic. The builders hope to have a fully-operable system in place by 2025, if they can get funding and approvals.
