Proposal

Shweeb

Shweeb's innovative approach ... has the potential for significant impact in the future.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Shweeb, a pedal-powered monorail, wins $1 million from Google

* Inventor pushes "a system that would change the world"

* Google says Shweeb could be a low-cost, eco-friendly solution to traffic woes

* But expert sees more potential in light-rail trains and plug-in hybrid cars

"The downside is that because it's set up as a racetrack, we don't really give the customers the chance to enjoy it as an efficient way to move. They're under a lot of pressure to put in all their energy and get a good [lap] time."

Barnett said the first concern people usually have about Shweeb is that it might be hard work, but he said it's anything but.

Shweeb's innovative approach ... has the potential for significant impact in the future.

--Jamie Yood, Google spokesman

"Although it is pedal-powered like a bicycle, it's got none of the resistances that are inherent in a bicycle, being that you're riding feet-first into the wind with a very small frontal area," he said. "The wind resistance is really low compared to a bicycle. ... I can see people of any age and any fitness level being able to cover a kilometer [0.62 miles] without any effort at all, let alone sweat."

Barnett envisions people using Shweeb -- which uses no fuel, no batteries and has no emissions -- for short trips in major urban centers where residential towers are relatively close to central business districts.

That's about the only place that Robert Lang, an expert in urban studies, could see it working out. Lang, a sociology professor and director of Brookings Mountain West at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, says Shweeb might be a viable solution, but only in the few areas with a high population density.

"It would make sense in China and New York and places like that, but you wouldn't have that much opportunity through much of urban America," Lang said. "There's not the...