These articles also never mention how this is going to work in the fabric of a city.
Say optimistically a 15 second separation between vehicles, 4 passengers per vehicle, means one ¨sky-lane¨ can transport 60/15 * 60 * 4 => about 1000 people per lane. That´s worse than a car lane, and an order of magnitude behind bicycle lanes and subways. You can stack multiple lanes vertically, but then it becomes more fun with traffic control for take-off and landing and still a bicycle lane transports more people.
So far these things seem better as a city hopper, or used in a rural setting, but the current ones don´t have the range for that either.
also cities should have public transit anyway. what a massive waste of energy it is to fly people hundreds of feet UP before then even go anywhere.
These articles also never mention how this is going to work in the fabric of a city.
Say optimistically a 15 second separation between vehicles, 4 passengers per vehicle, means one ¨sky-lane¨ can transport 60/15 * 60 * 4 => about 1000 people per lane. That´s worse than a car lane, and an order of magnitude behind bicycle lanes and subways. You can stack multiple lanes vertically, but then it becomes more fun with traffic control for take-off and landing and still a bicycle lane transports more people.
So far these things seem better as a city hopper, or used in a rural setting, but the current ones don´t have the range for that either.