“Wagon Wheel” the song
Bob Dylan, 1973 — Old Crow Medicine Show, Ketch Secor, 2004 Darius Rucker — Grammy Award in 2013 for Best Country Solo Performance
…
So, rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama any way you feel
Hey... mama rock me
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a southbound train
Hey... mama rock me …
The Re-doable Decision
My Wagon Wheel gets me where I need to go.
Do you move and live in a Wagon Wheel? Why not ?
A century ago trains were the sleekest mode of transportation for people and goods. There are attempts for adaptations to older systems such as bike riding and e-bikes and cargo bikes, however the ridership associated today is so low it will take many years promote the use as a viable alternative to either gasoline or electrified car travel. It is important to note the bicycle industry is a good fit with the wagon wheel.
We live today in a car centric culture that often dismisses the grandeur of train travel. Two industries came together and in a rather short period of time changed the course of train travels future possibilities. You know the two industries as the fossil fuel industry and the automobile/trucking industry that grew gargantuously, quickly, such that rail transport declined as the primary choice for movement. Society can reverse, rewind and redo how it travels, houses itself, now and in the short decades to come. This is the impetus of this zoetic message. Read on!
A lack of imagination
It's certainly impossible for a vast number of people throughout the world, even in the very affluent nations, like the US of A to acquire modest living quarters. Developers and real estate agencies and urban planner and traffic engineers and lending institutions gobble up huge land tracts with massive paved surfaces and more single use structures to garage limited use vehicles, generally cars.
Previously trains were used as a means of transferring passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, located on tracks. Recall the Interurban throughout the land? Road transport dominates today and many people question the environmental soundness of the associated problems with highways, streets and vehicles. No enumeration is necessary.
it's really a lack of imagination, plus the controlling interest of industries that manipulate and tell untruths to keep transit, housing and fuel restricted to controls beyond normal every day individuals. The state of the housing industry has inhabitants in millions of units stacked in apartment dwellings, living generally in substandard quality of design, units without biophilic amenity, locked in leases, in terms favorable to lenders developers and landlords.
It's sad.
For those fortunate enough to rent to own it takes decades to be out from underneath land sharks. Individuals are sold houses like they sold their SUV’s and Pickups. It's sad. Try to buy a “first” house if you're 30 or 40 something today. Property taxes in some states will equal the wages people receive for their yearly incomes.
Prohibiting any upward mobility from a rental apartment to owning one's own home, with out of fear of foreclosure is constantly in the back of one's mind. One doesn't even think that the term “rat race” comes close to the anxieties of modern day life for most people.
Lastly there's the energy cost based primarily worldwide on fossil fuel to propel vehicles either for commuting purposes, shopping, delivery, transit, and overall move-ability.
Modularity railway
What if the majority of transport had continued for the vehicles to glide on a prepared flat surface with rail vehicles that are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run? As we know, tracks generally consist of steel rails, secured to sleepers, that securely rest in ballast. The rolling stock, typically fitted with metal wheels, moves. Rubber wheels are known to be used in some parts for quieter effects.
Modularity railway prototypes are always being researched for transport options such as the message we visited regarding Hyperloop or Hyperloopy? The wagon wheel’s time has returned to our choices to use to move, not only us and our things, but the houses that contain our things. I think of the modern day wagon wheel as a suitable house with purpose.
A paradigm shift is truly possible, globally, as the use of dead fossil fuel energy costs soar and environmentally disruptive extraction methods continue to scar our lands, seas and atmosphere. Alternatives are being implemented into the fabric to counter sources where ground, water, and air pollution, caused by dead and nuked energy, are promised, thus reversing harmful results foisted over the past centuries on all earthlings on the planet.
To be clear the definition for earthling is found in the documentary, ‘Earthling’.
“Since we all inhabit the Earth, all of us are considered earthlings. There is no sexism, no racism, or speciesism in the term earthling. It encompasses each and every one of us, warm or cold-blooded, mammal, vertebrae or invertebrate, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, and human alike."
The Wagon Wheel
The Wagon Wheel idea emerging today is the “global ring” rail system for those on the move. The days of a modern wagon wheel are upon us. An answer for humanity to reduce the high land costs, higher moving and shipping costs, and the highest building costs, makes life tedious. Rid the world of dead oil fields and the world will have less dead soldiers to bury. Promote democratic norms at every occasion.
Are you constantly wanting to take the comforts of your dwelling with you when you are made to move by the company or just traveling, yet find it impossible? Perhaps you would like to move permanently or temporarily to be near the beach, the countryside, or a community of caring compatible compatriots, without rebuilding and remodeling, selling or buying? We in our home, here, enjoy our well crafted zoetic space we occupy. We would be happy as larks to take it all with us as we move about.
The notion of various solutions by utilizing train cars, like container carriers, as housing, we call Wagon Wheel. Rather than emptying your contents of your house, or apartment, or abode, then placing them into a vehicle for $10-$15,000 to go to another house, or apartment, or abode, that is 50, 500, or 15,000 miles away, then unpack and in three years do it all again, represents somewhat of a inefficient system, Why not just take all your belongings with you on the wagon wheel rail system?
Mobile Nobility (mob nob, for short)
Your destination, truly mobile, indeed noble, we call noble mobility, or as we prefer mobile nobility. We shall explore the environmental positives of this technique for mobility in relocating, repurposing, and innovating our structures.
First is the design of the pod, or if you prefer the container, or as we say, Mob Nob.
The mob nob is a healthy hub containing all the amenities that any other dwelling would have, and more. This unit has energy efficiency built in, is non-toxic to the occupant and Mother Earth, allows healthy gardens, water, zoetic space, moving air, amble sun light, while being heated and cooled naturally and simply, with very little mechanization involved. Waste systems are designed with biomimicry principles, as the structure itself exhibits biophilic attributes.
In concert with the holistic healthy hub concept discussed in Hyperloop or Hyperloopy? mobile nobility is to become the real “Fair Housing” standard. Any sizes are permissible, as a starting point, the mean size is a shipping container dimension for its modularity.
Let’s realize anything that has to do with dead (fossil) fuel industry needs to come alive, taking away dead energy, replacing with living energy. Your typical hundred and fifteen car coal train and locomotive whole train is being replaced with housing units. What's this image conjure to you? Flatbeds carry healthy house hubs hopefully. Remember please, wagon wheels are a paradigm shift. Thus it is a different way of transporting ourselves and our possessions from point a to point b around the globe.
A Zoetic Message
What is established by this belief of mobile mobility is far-reaching, far-flung, and an economic global creation of infrastructure for a proposed and purposeful form of housing, as yet unseen. What has not been seen is the actual implementation of a real housing terminus, ending up in various destinations, so we can sing from its rail wagon wheels, “Rock me mama like a southbound train, Hey... mama rock me”!
This artfully centered life is not a matter of competitiveness, it however is a matter of collaboration via connectedness so there is a unified thought for earthling and earth alike. Individual components for individual countries may not necessarily be without differences. That said, the common denominator is the design that must always keep in mind the need to utilize net 0+ energy usage.
Design your wagon wheel to carry international standard 20', 40', 45', 48', and 53' ocean freight container sizes, yes? The possibility to take a mob nob from, let's say, Seattle to Pretoria for a transportation fee is our dream come true.
The appeal for me is the economies of scale. You can have a factory sitting anywhere that builds these houses and then rails them to their users destinations, customized, built to spec, fully set up by trained staff that are centralized and never had to travel to your home destination
The appeal for me would be the economic scale providable. You can literally have a factory designed and customized home that gets shipped off the rail in the factory and shows up at your chosen destination. Setup, personalized, customized by trained staff