Dulles Shuttles

These are what we take residents in guests across our meadows in during sight-seeing tours there.

 

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Table of Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. History
  3. Location
  4. Dimensions & Capacity
  5. Schedule
  6. Rules
  7. History
  8. Novels Excerpt
  9. Area of Operations
  10. The Originals
  11. Like Ours
  12. Seating Concept

 

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Introduction:

Like the ones at Dulles International Airport (in the Outlands), but much cleaner, more luxurious, and more like a 1900s restaurant train car.  These large vehicles are the classy monster-trucks that offer off-road sight-seeing rides around the rolling foothills and meadows around our central mountain.  Their routes go anywhere from the bottom of the Slope Clearing, out past the Tree Castles Complex, around the outside of the perimeter wall of Sotu (downtown), and on to the edge of the Kathedrom.  Drop-offs are possible anywhere along that series of areas, including outside the Modern American Neighborhood, at the base of Mt. Auzmore, and at our Shire.

 

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Location:

All of these are kept at the same motor-pool meant only for them.  It is downhill from the Slope Clearing.  Almost all of it was on the surface in the early years of our city, and now, decades later, it is becoming more and more tastefully concealed, partially/mostly underground.

 

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Dimensions & Capacity:

This type of vehicle is based on the signature one used to ferry airline passengers between some airplanes and airport terminals at Dulles International.

  • ~54′ “long” (deep)
  • ~16′ wide
  • ~864 sq.ft. in the cab; room for each of 40 passengers to have ~21.6 sq.ft. of space (~4.6′ x 4.6′; room for the seat, the person, and some luggage/gear)
  • ~20′ tall
  • ~10′ in the cab
  • able to raise and lower the cab over the chassis/carriage; based on a scissor-lift
  • modification in Inisfree:  Arctic/Antarctic/polar oversized off-roading tires and wheels, and axels (etc.) which can easily support them, making them similar to Snow Coaches used at some research stations

 

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Schedule:

In Inisfree’s first years, there was no schedule (or even a route) planned for these vehicles.  They were only used as needed/requested, typically just whenever a visiting donor/supporter wanted to be driven around off-road to take in the outdoor landscape / “look and feel” of the less-challenging and un-forested terrain sections of Inisfree.  Whether 40 people or just 1 person asked to take one of these vehicles out (i.e. be driven by an ICV in them), they were then boarded at their motor-pool and driven over the meadows and other low-slope / negligible-incline regions.

Today, this is much the same, though it is recommended that anyone in Inisfree make reservations via the FOB-Net or a nearby ICV to ensure they can ride when they wish to; with only ~a couple dozen of these vehicles now, and millions of people visiting Inisfree, demand/interest is increasing quickly.

Due to Inisfree having aircraft and Spacecraft from the start, these vehicles were never needed as surface/off-road transports; they have remained a sightseeing option since their first assembly and use.

 

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Rules:

  1. Choose which route you would like to be driven along.
  2. Reserve a shuttle seat as much in advance as you can.
  3. Get plenty of sleep before coming, and go to the toilet-room before; some of these drives take hours, and there is no toilet inside these shuttles.
  4. Arrive several minutes before your shuttle’s scheduled departure.
  5. Bring only yourself and one or two needed (not just wanted) items (such as hiking shoes or a snack).
  6. Board via either end-entrance; the door at the front, or the door at the back.  Please do not fly or teleport/portal in or out.
  7. Stay in your reserved/assigned seat.
  8. Do not black line-of-sight; look out your window or others from your seated position, and keep your arms (and wings, if you have wings) at your sides, not blocking anyone’s view out any of the windows.
  9. Be quiet and of a good vibe while a passenger, and do what you can to help everyone hear what the tour guide (driver) is saying.
  10. If you need to leave early, let the driver know so she can stop the vehicle and open one of its doors for you.
  11. Stay on your seat until the vehicle has stopped.
  12. Line up facing either door when it is almost time to walk out, and wait for the doors to open on their own.

 

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History:

We 3D-printed several of these to help transport the thousands of Base 211 volunteers around the Inisfree construction site when they weren’t using their Haunebu saucers.  Since then, we have printed more on-demand, always keeping pace with the interest to ride in these off-road sight-seeing trolley equivalents.

  1. 2011:  7
  2. 2012:  8
  3. 2013:  9
  4. 2014:  10
  5. 2015:  11
  6. 2021:  17
  7. 2022:  Repulsines added; all of the shuttles are upgraded so that out-of-site repulsines now help ensure they never are at risk of tipping or rolling.
  8. 2100:  ~50
  9. 3000:  ~100
  10. 23000:  We may have thousands of these shuttles by this distant time, as we’ll have ~154,000,000 residents and guests in Inisfree each month / at any given time, and many of them will have already completed the tour of our city, but still be interested in off-roading out to glamp-sites and other remote places.  We’ll also be using these shuttles for guided tours beyond our Perimeter Orb.

Auz has been ‘christening’ each one.  Eventually, he’ll have christened at least one of these off-roading shuttles in each of the areas/biomes of Inisfree they are driven to/through.  This is The Inisfreean Way.

 

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Novels Excerpt:

Miles and miles of open land filled the Inisfreean realm, surrounding many of its buildings with breathtaking scenery and endless places to walk and explore. To see enough of it while giving his new guest’s feet a rest, they boarded one of the sight-seeing shuttles alongside the Flower Towers Field. It was similar to the limousine that had picked them up at the airport; white, long like a ‘stretch’ vehicle, and driven by a couple other Inisfreeans. What set it apart from the limo and other normal street cars were its tires and lift; the thing stood several feet above the ground, its wheels larger than most people could reach above themselves. This afforded many great views from its two sides full of seatback-to-ceiling windows.

That shuttle drove them off-road over the rolling hills of Inisfree, somehow not leaving any tire tracks behind. A couple times, it took an access ramp up onto the Glowing Art Highway, expediting its way to more of the most visually-stirring buildings and areas, giving Lucifera more tastes of things ahead. One of its stops was alongside a stand-alone castle-style turret in a field, though this turret had giant inlaid gemstones, and seemed to function as a light-house or night-light.

She’d see others just like it as they drove on. There was a network of them across Inisfree’s surface. Some people could be seen walking over from their homes or trails to marvel and touch the gems.

 

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Area of Operations:

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The Originals:

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Like Ours:

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Seating Concept:

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