The Future of Public Transportation Will Involve Personal Helicopters, Mag-Lev Cars and Zeppelins

You Had Me At Personal Helicopter Backpack via EU Infrastructure Magazine

Ranging from the simple, like publicly available electric bikes and moving sidewalks, to the more futuristic, like a personal helicopter backpack and personal maglev car/pods, a new vision breaks down the future of public transportation.

In the latest issue of European Union Infrastructure Magazine, it features the pros, cons and feasibility of implementing the world's most advanced public transportation system.

The article highlights how future solutions to the problem of transportation will need a suite of technologies. Some of these technologies, like the Segway and zeppelins, have already been implemented. Others, like personal monorail sky cars carry significant cost ($10 million per mile of track), and have yet to see the light of day outside of Ogdenville, Brockway, and North Haverbrook.

Thanks to recession-era belt tightening, this vision of the future is unlikely to come to America for some time. However, Dubai has just begun instituting a state-of-the-art public transportation system, and China already has a maglev train connecting Shanghai to the airport, so at least these ideas have already been implemented somewhere.

And in case you ever need to convince your local town to spend money on a mono-thingy, here's a song that might help:

[EU Infrastructure via Gothamist]