It is 22,300 miles to GEO. At 100 mph, a trip to or from GEO would take 223 hours, or 9 days.

I guess we should go a bit faster then.

For faster travel, rockets tend to be chosen. What, then, would be the point of a space elevator?

By the way, the top recorded speed of a Bugatti Veyron, the fastest production car in the world, is 253 mph - on the flat. Travelling vertically at that speed, a space elevator car (we might assume it is powered by a 1%-efficient laser-beam stationed on the ground and aimed at photovoltaic panels on the bottom of the elevator car) would take 88 hours (or 3.7 days) to get to GEO.

Haha, it's ok, it was a joke.

Thanks for doing the math though :).

I could see humans taking rockets while all non-perishable cargo takes the elevator.

Last I heard it costs some $20,000 per pound to send material up in a space shuttle. I think this would be beyond most people's commuting allowance!

The Space Shuttle is not LEO on the cheap. The Sea Dragon does a lot better (as low as $8.90/lb, in 1963 dollars).

http://www.dunnspace.com/leo_on_the_cheap.htm

http://neverworld.net/truax

http://neverworld.net/truax/Sea_Dragon_Concept_Volume_1.pdf

http://neverworld.net/truax/Sea_Dragon_Concept_Volume_3.pdf