Rollercoaster speeds can turn you “green”, but the ‘coaster itself is hardly energy friendly. Time for a stroller coaster.
United Arab Emirates might hold the Guinness World Record for Holding the Most Guinness World Records, and one of those prizes goes to the world’s fastest ride: the Formula 1 Rollercoaster at Abu Dhabi’s Ferrari World (itself a record winner as the world’s largest indoor theme park).
Fasten your safety goggles to protect against Abu Dhabi dust and blast onto the track at a denture-rattling speed of 150 mph in under four seconds. Enjoy an extreme gravity Botox-face as you shoot 52 meters into the sky. It’s rollercoaster as RACECAR <– spell that backwards or forwards, it still screams fast! But Global financial markets provide enough public titillation: perhaps it’s time to reinvent these thrilling rides? How about a human powered roller coaster for a change?
How much power is chewed up pushing us around these metal mountains?
Ferrrari uses technology akin to the jet launching systems on aircraft carriers. You with strong eco-sensibilities (or weak stomachs) might consider these alternatives, maybe coming soon to an enviro-park near you:
Duisberg, Germany recently unveiled a large-scale public sculpture whose swoops and twists trace an eco-friendly graffiti over a rural landscape.
This “stroller-coaster” is an elevated pedestrian walkway laid out like a real rollercoaster, reaching 21 meters high and offering fantastic views of the Western Ruhr.
Called “Crouching Tiger and Turtle”, it’s suggestion of speedy travel can only be experienced at a pedestrian crawl. From a distance the track creates an illusion of thrilling acceleration, but up close it’s just a crazy tilting stairway which follows the virtual ‘coaster’s course .
Visitors walk onto the sculpture at ground level and wind their way to it’s highest accessible point, where unlike on a real ride, they can pause to soak in the extraordinary views. This interactive art is open to the public day and night, after sunset the piece is gorgeously illuminated by a necklace of LED lights.
Want relatively more speed? Check out the Skycycle at Okayama’s Washuzan Highland Park.
This pedal-powered rollercoaster requires aerobic ability, and the flimsy bike-like vehicles cruising its mountainside perch might best Abu Dhabi for World’s Scariest Ride.
Maybe Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism could be incited to install one of these babies in Amman’s King Hussein Park or the Jordan Valley’s Sharhabil Bin Hassneh EcoPark.
It would be a “lifestyle attraction” right on track with the nation’s goals of 21st Century leadership in eco-tourism, sustainable development and energy independence.
