NOTE: This concept revolves around the concept of people taking cheap public transport to a virtual location or meeting, rather than paying a lot to go there directly. A potential criticism is that people won’t be interested in looking out a bus window for 20 minutes.

To the contrary, virtually the same idea has been a big success on Norwegian television, where people have tuned in to watch a 7 hour train ride, or a 134 hour ferry journey.

Initially, there will be several reasons for restricting the speed of virtual travel in the Now:

• Processing Speed – rendering the world at an acceptable resolution becomes more difficult the faster you move.
• Bandwidth – getting that rendered world to wherever you are will take bandwidth that is probably beyond what most people currently have.
• Revenue – one of the ways to generate revenue in MapMerge is to charge for transport. Walking can be free, bicycles a few pennies, a bus ride maybe 20 cents, and instant teleporting charged at whatever the market is willing to pay.

Public transport will quickly become an important part of the Internet of Things. There is a strong need from the public to know how far off their ride is. And there aren’t any strong reasons to restrict the information. So the presumption is that very soon buses, trains and planes will be beaming out their GPS co-ordinates.

Representations of these vehicles can be made in the Now. Amongst the static images of the Then will be virtual objects appearing in the same locations as their real counterparts, at the same time.  Stand at a bus stop in the Now and see a virtual bus arrive at the same time as the real one does in the Real world. Same goes for seeing planes in the sky, trains zipping by.

Asking a Now traveller to wait at a bus stop to catch the virtual bus is asking a bit much. I suggest a hybrid concept. The virtual bus arrives on demand, but only at a bus stop. It is a recreation of the last bus that travelled that route.

Real passengers will be wanting internet connections that don’t drop out, so expect these vehicles to be well-connected. That means you can fit cameras onto buses that share the window views of their travels.

On the virtual bus you will see everything that people on the last Real bus saw – external images only. If the bus slows down you can look through the front window and see that a herd of sheep are in the way (or whatever). You will be able to hear the outside world as well.

Your seat on the virtual bus is allocated at random, where you sit doesn’t matter, the views are the same. You do not see Real people – the cameras are only aimed outside. Inside the bus you can see any virtual travellers who have opted out of privacy. You will be able to communicate with them.

[discussing the outside world will be difficult, unless you both boarded the bus from the same stop at the same time]

Viewing different directions is a simple matter of turning your head. The standard view is 1x magnification of the external. Zoom out to see other virtual travellers and perhaps visual information about where you are, or the next stop. Zoom in to look closer at the outside world.

Just like a real bus you will be able to indicate when you wish to alight. And then you will be travelling by foot again, at walking speed.

The best way to charge for bus journeys would be by the minute. It saves complications, and it easy for everyone to understand. 1c per minute would be cheap enough that most people wouldn’t care.

Third parties could offer commentaries for popular tourist journeys.

For train journeys, underground portions would not take any time, as there is nothing to see and therefore no value. Likewise plane journeys would only be available for scenic, low-altitude flights. Teleportation would be used for most travel between countries.

Given that you can leave your VR system while your Avatar still travels (with an amber halo), very long journeys will be possible for those who wish to save money. The typical journey time will be related to how interesting the scenery is. Price options would be free, interesting or rapid. Examples:

• bus across the Nullarbor desert between Perth and Adelaide in Australia. Free if you leave your system running for 3 days. $5 if you experience the interesting half hour journeys at either end. $20 if the entire trip is condensed to 10 minutes.
• flight from New York to London. Free if your system experiences the entire 8 hour journey. You might find interesting Avatar passengers to chat with – each will have a journey time remaining displayed in their halo when you converse with them. $10 if you experience the interesting half hour journeys at either end, including views from the cameras looking downward. $35 if the entire trip is condensed to 10 minutes.
• trains would operate in a similar manner, except that tunnels offer totally nothing to see, so any length of tunnel would just be a blip in any travel modes.

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So, to summarise:

• You catch a bus journey from a bus stop, and a train journey from a train station, and can only alight at bus stops and train stations.
• The journeys are charged by the minute. Perhaps 1c per minute on buses and 3c per minute on trains.
• The vehicles travel at the same speed as in the Real.
• For your journey you are temporarily time-shifted to when the Real vehicle last took that route. You see what Real people saw on that last journey. When you alight you return to real time.