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Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by djpilot on Sunday June 09, 2019 @02:36PM (#20140966)
I really like the bendy train in the artistic rendering. What materials would allow for railroad car chassis and bodies which could bend and torque with the curve of the track like rubber? I think you would need lots of wheels or a relatively pointless flex-inducing system on each car to even get it to bend in this fashion.

Perhaps it just made for a pretty picture, and a completely impractical reality :)

https://i2.wp.com/www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/201...

Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by xyzzy_plugh on Sunday June 09, 2019 @02:46PM (#20141037)
Not quite a bendy train but the Toronto Rocket subway is quite a trip during sharp turns, as it has fully-open gangways, giving the appearance that the train is bending through curves.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangway_connection#/media/Fi...

Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by rayiner on Sunday June 09, 2019 @03:13PM (#20141223)
The artist just doesn't understand physics. Even if it was possible, you'd be losing huge amounts of energy to constant deformation.
Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by adrianmonk on Sunday June 09, 2019 @05:36PM (#20142083)
Alternatively, maybe it has nothing to do with physics, the picture is computer rendered, and the artist found the first of these two alternatives a whole lot easier:

1. model a train that is straight, and then use some tool to bend the entire model to fit a curve.

2. define a curve, then align models of train engine and cars so that they follow the curve.

Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by burfog on Monday June 10, 2019 @01:27AM (#20144130)
If the train is elastic, you'd recover that energy.

Going into a curve, kinetic energy from the speed of the train is turned into spring energy by bending the train. Leaving the curve, the spring energy becomes kinetic energy. The flexed train speeds up due to the spring force as the train unflexes.

Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by dwaltrip on Sunday June 09, 2019 @03:53PM (#20141476)
I don't think this is correct as a general statement. Imagine if the walls were made of canvas fabric with appropriate amounts of slack, just as an example of a material that can easily bend.

You would need a cleverly designed frame, but I'm sure there is something that would work. Perhaps many smaller segments joined together.

Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by rayiner on Sunday June 09, 2019 @04:00PM (#20141519)
Canvas can bend more easily than rubber or steel, but deforming it still requires some energy. And while canvas would work for the walls, it wouldn’t work for the bogey, and anything rigid enough to work as a bogey would take lots of energy to bend.
Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by keerthiko on Sunday June 09, 2019 @05:06PM (#20141900)
To some extent you can say a regular multi-bogey train is undergoing deformation by changing the angular configuration between cars via the linkages. This could technically be extended to have the linkages have every few inches along the bogey instead of between 20-foot segments. We just need a way to transfer energy reliably between deformations and change in acceleration.
Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by unsrsly on Sunday June 09, 2019 @03:19PM (#20141266)
I also appreciate the re-used formation of Tesla/van/Tesla next to Smart car/Smart car/Smart car.
Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by Tempest1981 on Sunday June 09, 2019 @02:49PM (#20141060)
And all of the vehicles are not just driverless -- they're passenger-less!

I still like it. Probably means everyone is finally working from home.

Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by codesnik on Sunday June 09, 2019 @02:39PM (#20140991)
oh man, I've come here to complain about unbelievably small radiuses. But they bent the damn train car!
Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by the_mitsuhiko on Sunday June 09, 2019 @09:00PM (#20142999)
Steel tracks are transported on trains and they flex: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt6SgeQHA4b/?igshid=1f2ujwjayn8w...
Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by nitrogen on Sunday June 09, 2019 @09:56PM (#20143254)
This is OT, but it was absolutely impossible to tap the tiny X on the "use our app" banner. It just opened the clipboard overlay no matter what I tried (Firefox Android) -- tap X, "Select All" button appears.
Re:Traffic-busting $100B Bay Area tax plan taking shape by heliodor on Sunday June 09, 2019 @04:15PM (#20141616)
The first thing that caught my eye was the gap in the middle of the bridge. A rather rare sight in reality, so the presentation of such a rendering comes across as a form of lying.

I completely missed the curved train cars! Thanks for pointing it out.