Sedan chairs could provide the financially elite with the ideal urban travel solution

The return of old ideas has always been a popular solution for several problems humanity faces. If we were to return to the "old ways," perhaps we'd have less pollution, less obesity, less energy problems. .. However, drawing on the past is not always helpful and can prove why we've moved on in the first place. Just as sedan chairs moved aside for the carriages and, later, limousines for the upper-crust, so the current mode of transportation will develop and move forward. Reintroduction of the sedan chair would prove retroactive in a time where technology and progress reign supreme. A change from our current system is a necessity, yes-- but moving backwards is not the answer. Sedan chairs, also known as palanquins, are typically connected with visions of royalty and the elite being transported through a crowd of awestruck subordinates (1, 2). In today's city traffic (3), it can be impossible to move through the masses on foot or bicycle, let alone a largely decorated chair carried by anywhere from two to eight people. To introduce these into highly congested and hectic areas such as city streets would be a crowded and inefficient way to travel. Maneuvering around blockages and barriers would be close to impossible in such a vehicle in the cities it would be most needed in (4). One could put it this way: the cities that have the problem of congestion and crowded car traffic are exactly the ones where implementation of a sedan chair system would be impossible because of similar pedestrian traffic problems. In addition, with the expansion of cities (5)-- both in land area and population density-- many of the bourgeoisie and upper-middle class citizens are forced to move further and further away from city centers and the central business districts. They are often moving into lush suburbs, especially those with spouses and children. This would create quite the labor problem, if every businessman was expected to be carried 30 miles or more to work and back every day. Americans spend over 100 hours in commute per year by car-- imagine what these numbers would be if the elite expected have people carry them everywhere (6). This is only taking into account the workdays; if one preferred to travel with his or her family, this would create even more of a fatigue problem for workers. In addition, many upper-class members of society just wouldn't want to give up the luxury and safety of their lovely climate-controlled, spacious, and ambient Rolls Royce or Bentley or whatever else they're driving these days. People love to show off what has come to be one of the ultimate status symbols, and it is not going to be given up easily. .. that is, until a new-and-improved model comes along. The average upper-class man or woman does not want to be exposed to the elements or feel unsafe among the proles. Even the Pope, who had been carried on the Sedia gestatoria (7) for years, has moved on and is now housed safely in the Popemobile (8, 9). Although a sedan chair system might be a useful and quaint way to ferry around the masses in smaller cities, like the bicycle rickshaw taxi systems currently seen (10), it would not be a useful system for the elite in large business centers because of the problems with pedestrian traffic and the social barriers implementation would involve. Instead, it is important to move forward with the elite at the forefront of the new technologies, as they have always been. Again, thank you for the well-reasoned and thoughtful debate opportunity. 1. . http://www.kamat.com... 2. . http://www.probst.cx... 3. . http://www.worldofstock.com... 4. . http://farm3.static.flickr.com... 5. . http://www.census.gov... 6. . http://www.census.gov... 7. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 8. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 9. . http://jalopnik.com... 10. . http://en.wikipedia.org...