Photo Credit: Nationaal Archief/ Wikimedia Commons
25. Riding the One-Wheel Motorbike (1931)
The early 20th century was an absolute golden age for experimental transit, driven by inventors who were convinced that the traditional two-wheeled bicycle format could be vastly improved upon. One of the most striking results was the “Monowheel”—a motorized vehicle where the rider sits completely inside a giant, singular outer tire.
Invented by Swiss engineer M. Gerder in 1931, this specific monowheel could reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. While it looked spectacularly futuristic, the vehicle suffered from a fatal flaw known as “gerbiling”—if the driver braked too hard, the rider would spin around inside the wheel like a loop-the-loop. The absolute lack of crash protection or structural stability makes it an unthinkable alternative to modern commuters.
26. The Moving Sidewalk of Paris (1900)
Long before modern airports installed flat escalators to help travelers rush to their gates, the city of Paris unveiled the “Rue de l’Avenir” (the Street of the Future). This was a massive, three-mile-long elevated moving sidewalk that looped around the 1900 Paris Exposition, carrying up to 14,000 people at a single time.