It is all very well driving your car every day but what about those modes of transport which never caught on and which you never got a chance to try. In an alternative universe you could be commuting in one of the following vehicles.
The Sinclair C5
Photo credit: Les Chatfield
I had to put this funny vehicle first because I really, really wanted one a few years ago. I had the chance to ride one too, when I stumbled across some for hire on a small Scottish island a few years ago. I lost my nerve at the last second, when I stopped to consider how foolish I would look. It is unlikely that I ever get a chance to ride in Sir Clive’s folly anywhere now. It sold less than 20,000 units, although it was still, rather bizarrely, the most sold type of electric vehicle until a couple of years ago.
The Monowheel
I would love to have a go on one of these contraptions. It just looks so incredibly unstable and almost impossible to control. A French chap came up with this unicycle-inside-a-hamster-wheel in the 19th century and it seems that some people still use one for fun, so you might get a shot one day.
The Kaz
This was a weird one, wasn’t it? An eight wheel electric limousine,you say? This Japanese monstrosity certainly looks bad enough to turn a few heads as you pop down to the shops.
The Bell Rocket Belt
If you asked me whether I wanted to strap a rocket on my back and fly to work then my reply would be a whoop of delight. I have always wanted to fly like a bird and maybe one day I will. The closest this has come to being reality so far seems have been a few decades ago when the Bell Rocket Bell appeared to be the future of transport. Sadly, minor flaws such as the fact that you could only fly for 21 seconds before refuelling meant that it never really, well, took off.
Da Vinci’s Car
Apart from producing some of the world’s finest pieces of art and furthering many different areas of science, Leonardo da Vinci also found a spare few minutes to design a clockwork car. Was it any good? Well, let’s just consider for a second how many clockwork cars you have seen through the years.