Coup for the shweeb

Internet giant Google is granting Rotorua-based company Shweeb Holdings a sum of $1 million to develop a pedal-system monorail for use in “traffic-clogged, skyscraper-strewn cities”. The company has been operating a monorail at an adventure park in Rotorua since 27, beat over 15, other ideas and inventions to nab the $1 million award from Google. The monorail, designed by Australian Geoff Barnett, uses transparent pods, where travelers have to pedal their pods like bicycles while lying backwards. After six years of developing the concept in Melbourne, he chose an adventure playground in Rotorua as a venue for tourists to test-ride it. Barnett has said potential sites were being explored in Europe, the US and Japan. Google wanted the award-winning company to develop a project that would help to move “more people with less energy, greater efficiency and fewer casualties”.