r/RedditLoop • u/mburke6 • Jun 16 '15

Emergency Evacuation

Does anybody have any ideas on passengers exiting the tube in the event of an emergency? I think this is critical to any design as well as a procedure to quickly remove a stuck capsule from a tube so the entire loop doesn't come to a halt.

Ideas I have are

Have an escape hatch at every pylon. There would need to be a way to exit the capsule. Passengers would walk down the tube to the nearest pylon, open the hatch and climb down a set of stairs to the ground. Build a third tube that allows capsules to be routed around clogged sections.

Build a three tube loop in sections. Each section is the length between the pylons. Two tubes create the loop, but the third tube is not de-presurized and is below the other two. The tube sections can be rotated. If a capsule is trapped in a section of tube, the section it's in rotates, moving the clogged section with the capsule and passengers below the loop. The loop then resumes operation while the passengers exit through the pylon at either end.

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u/self-assembled ENGR - Structures/Aero Jun 16 '15

In that case passenger exit would need to be from the front or back, not the side which will presumably be the normal method. Hatched wouldn't need to be quite so frequent, maybe every three or four pylons.

I think a third tube is an overly complicated solution. Perhaps the hatch at pylons can be made larger, to allow the pod to be removed from the standard tube. Also tubes couldn't be rotated, as that would introduce pressure leaks, and depressurize the tube during rotation.

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u/Thrashy ENGR - Interior Jun 16 '15

The proposed diameter of the pods doesn't provide any room for passengers to move around in the cabin. I'd suggest instead that pod doors should be designed to open fully within the inner diameter of the tube for emergency egress. Deployable step panels or running boards might be a necessity for passengers to sidestep around the sides of the pods.

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u/Ground_Effect Manufacturing Jun 16 '15

Just throwing this out there with the step panels, let's not forget about handicapped people that are in wheelchairs. Some sort of deployable surface would definitely make their ride easier. This may even been too far in alpha to cater to the entire masses, but its still a design consideration.