A closer look
Instead of relying on overhead wires or dirty diesel, Elon Bird's postwar transit dream involved strapping three-ton spinning metal flywheels into city buses. The gyrobus experiment was delightfully unhinged: buses would plug into electrical masts at stops to spin up their internal flywheels to 3,000 RPM, then use that terrifying kinetic energy to coast to the next stop. It was essentially a bomb of stored mechanical energy humming right beneath the passengers' feet, completely revolutionizing urban anxiety.
