The smart road is essentially a high speed bespoke travel surface in which citizens can join a rolling road that quickly jets them off towards their destination. Gone are the days of public transport, say hello to the days of transport publiqué. The road is made up of many narrow lines that each move at a slightly faster speed than their neighbour. This allows pedestrians to gradually pick up speed on the moving expressway, by standing toward the crash barrier people can gather up to speeds of twenty five miles an hour! And that's not including the speed in which people could run on this high tech pavement. The whole thing was a wi-fi hotspot to, and could be lit up at night. Salem Peters is hoping to add touchscreen technology at people's feet. You could order pizza or watch the news. I couldn't wait to see this in action, but the smart road is still in the developmental stage. Not to mention the extravagant cost of replacing roads with a complex set of graphene lateral microsteps, this will also mean cars aren't able to travel on these horizontal autopedestulators. Nevertheless, it was an interesting idea.
Salem Peters stands next to a glass window, his reflection doppelganging in the blackness. I stand next to him and look down on the smart road. Four hundred metres of the stuff has been built in this empty factory. I watch mannequins be moved forward, making a circuit along a fake street.
“Check your wi-fi signal.” says Salem Peters. I do and am surprised I'm getting a 4G connection.
“It's pushing five bars.” I say, impressed. “Mind if I take it for a spin?”
“Of course.” he says, turning to me and showing a mouth full of false teeth.
I go downstairs and stand on the fake pavement. Photos of shops have been printed onto high glossy cardboard as the mannequins move past me. The only sound is the gentle whirring of the smart road. I step onto it. It's an unusual experience at first, but gentle enough not to be surprising. After trying out the different speed zones it isn't long before I'm running along the smart road.
“This is fantastic!” I say, dodging between human sized dolls. The fake shops zip past me as I run faster and faster around the circuit, laughing and shouting 'woopee' to myself. I whip out my phone and take a high speed selfie, uploading it through the 3 gigabit connection onto social media streams. There's a knocking overhead and I look up. Salem Peters is standing at the window, watching me. He takes out a small touchscreen device and nods his head. The road beneath me is beginning to accelerate and so I hop to a halt, nearly knocking over a fake woman. Why is he doing this? I stagger towards the pavement though have found that the road is moving too fast for me to take a step on. I'm trapped. Mannequins zip past me, beginning to rock back and forth under the high speeds. One falls onto the still pavement and cracks into six pieces which roll inside the suit. I leap to the ground and hold on for dear life as the road accelerates beneath me. I have to get out of here! I crawl along the floor towards a fallen mannequin and use it to paddle myself closer to the pavement, the shops are now just a blur. Struggling to kneel up at the smart road's edge I lift the mannequin and shout before slamming it down onto the still concrete. I am yanked from the road and do a handstand on the mannequin as I grab onto it, skimming across the surface of the fake shop-front and straight through the window in which Salem Peters is standing, spearing him through another window. I watch as the mannequin throws him down the single storey and onto the wet grass outside.
“Help!” he says weakly.
“Looks like you got hit in the cul-de-sacs, road man.” I say, pulling a face at the sun.
