Shweeb

Shweeb is a concept for a personal rapid transit system in New Zealand that uses human-powered pods suspended from a monorail. The original prototype was built and operated as a tourist attraction in Rotorua, New Zealand. Its name comes from the German phrase "zu schweben," meaning to hang, hover, or levitate, and is also a nod to the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, a suspended monorail. The system would use recumbent bicycle technology to move the pods along the track. According to the company behind it, the goal is to offer the same flexibility and comfort as a car, but without the direct financial costs or the indirect health and environmental drawbacks. The plan envisions networks of monorail track for both point-to-point and commuter travel in urban areas.

In September 2010, a proposal for an expanded Shweeb network received one million dollars in funding from Google as part of its Project 10100 initiative. By August 2017, no active proposals existed for public transportation use, though a "sport resort" in the United States was considering it. In January 2021, a proposal was made to include a Shweeb track as an attraction in a planned stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand, with the monorail suspended from the stadium's main frame. The original track in Rotorua remains open to the public.

The track is made of folded galvanised steel, measuring 220 by 200 millimetres in external height and width. Its support piles are also galvanised steel. The pods are covered with transparent plastic sheets and have ventilation holes. They are equipped with front and rear long dampers to limit impact acceleration in a collision and to allow pods to be linked into trains, which could improve aerodynamic efficiency. To help pods climb ramps, an electrically powered chain on a section of track can push them for a short distance, similar to a Trampe bicycle lift. This boost can also help pods enter stations built at a higher elevation than the main track, allowing them to gain momentum when descending back onto the line.