Someday, we’ll supposedly be able to zoom from one city to the next in no time flat thanks to the Hyperloop, but that day is not today. Elon Musk’s high-speed transit system Hyperloop One has been successfully tested, and promises to cut the 400-mile trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco down to just 30 minutes, but it’ll take it a while to get off the ground. In the meantime, our options are still limited to air travel, personal vehicles, trains and buses. Buses are easily accessible and cheap, but they cost a whole lot of time and discomfort instead.

If you’ve ever taken an inter-city bus trip, you know how it goes. More often than not, you’re crammed in with dozens of other people, breathing stale air, hoping the person coughing next to you won’t get you sick. Even worse, inter-city bus travel is notoriously inefficient, requiring a lot of stops and ultimately taking a lot longer than it would if you were driving a car. Ever wish you could just block out your surroundings and sleep through it without drooling on somebody’s shoulder?

A new service called ‘Cabin’ aims to bridge the gap between bus travel and air travel with comfortable one-person sleeping pods, so you get your own private little area in which to stretch out and lay down during a long drive. The company bills itself as “the dreamiest way to travel between LA and SF,” acting as a hotel on wheels that transports you to your destination while you’re sleeping.

The company worked with hospitality architects to “completely reinvent the bus as we know it,” outfitting each pod with hotel-like amenities like free wi-fi, fresh bedding, complimentary water, tea, coffee, earplugs and even a melatonin supplement to help you fall asleep.

With a round-trip cost of $230 to get back and forth between San Francisco and LA, Cabin definitely isn’t the cheapest option; you can take a Bolt bus for just $50, and many airlines offer routes between the cities for as low as $69 each way. But we all know how much comfort airlines have sacrificed in recent years to keep their costs down, and an air trip with a pod this cozy would cost many times that amount. Plus, there’s no dealing with airports, hidden fees or traffic.

The future of inter-city travel will likely include self-driving vehicles and highway trains, but for now, this seems like a pretty cool option, especially for people who feel particularly stressed about flying. Cabin launched last year as SleepBus, and after a highly successful test run, raise $3.3 million to continue, with plans to expand to the East Coast.

Integrating fairly seamlessly into existing city infrastructure, making use of renewable energy and solving the ‘last mile’ problem plaguing most public transit systems, these designs make some major advancements from the buses and trains already in use today. With some already in development around the world and others representing ideas that could provide inspiration for real-life solutions, these futuristic urban transit systems aim to get around traffic congestion and provide safer, more efficient rides.

Hyperloop for Dubai by Bjarke Ingels Group

Residents of the United Arab Emirates could get from the cities of Dubai to Abu Dhabi in just twelve minutes with the hyperloop transportation system recently announced as a deal between Hyperloop One and Dubai Roads and Transport Authority. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the system will carry passengers in 6-person pods contained within a pressure vessel ‘transporter’; the units are small to allow for on-demand travel and reduce wait times.

Self-Driving Bus by Mercedes-Benz

Already tested on a 12-mile route in Amsterdam, Mercedes-Benz’ new line of self-driving buses avoids human error while performing their usual duties, with a driver only present to take over when the route isn’t suitable for automated driving. Short-range radar, satellite-controlled GPS navigation, sensors and cameras help it on its way, and it communicates with the route infrastructure via wi-fi to take advantage of rolling green lights.

Skytran for Tel Aviv

The world’s first magnetically levitating skytTran system is set for development in Tel Aviv to reduce congestion, making routes faster, less expensive, more comfortable and more earth-friendly. Individual two-seater pods feature point-to-point service so travelers can reach specific destinations, and you can request one via a mobile app. Following completion in Tel Aviv, commercial skytrain systems will be rolled out worldwide.

Next Future Modular Transportation System

The self-driving modules envisioned by Next Future can link up like a typical transit system or go their own way on existing roadways, with users ordering them through a mobile app. Like the skyTran, this system takes care of that ‘last mile’ problem, automatically calculating routes. The 8×8’ modules, which hold ten passengers each, can link together in a ‘swarm’ or split up. When they’re linked, you can move from one module to the next to find the one that’s headed in the direction of your destination.

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The streets of Vilnius, Lithuania are full of ghost buses that blend right into their surroundings while passing through intersections as if only existing in translucent ethereal form. Matching up to the scenery beyond when glimpsed at just the right moment, the buses are momentarily camouflaged thanks to photorealistic printed imagery mounted to their exteriors for this summer’s Vilnius Street Art Festival (media by Studio Vieta).

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Lithuanian artist Liudas Parulskis collaborated with Studio Vieta to print full-scale scenes from the city onto public trolleybuses, a charmingly retro mode of transportation that has remained popular here despite being replaced by newer transit systems in many modern metropolises. ‘Vanishing Trolleybus’ is a temporary installation encouraging pedestrians to try to catch a glimpse or a photo of the effect in action at just the right ‘vanishing point.’

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One bus appears to be covered in imagery depicting traditional local architecture, while others capture specific street scenes around the city. Parulskis added a wolf running across an intersection to one of the buses, winking at the unofficial mascot of the city.

Has there ever been a cozier-looking bus cruising around the streets of London than this neon yarn-bombed double decker dubbed the No. 7up? The beverage brand commissioned Austin-based artist and ‘urban knitter’ Magda Sayeg to essentially knit a gigantic sweater for one of London’s iconic public buses, a classic red Routemaster, in a variety of eye-popping patterns.

Sayeg lugged 20 suitcases of yarn to London for the project, part of 7up’s ‘Feels Good to be You’ campaign aiming to refresh the brand as ‘naturally unique and individual.’ The artist is known for covering all sorts of urban surfaces in soft knits, from public benches and fountains to an entire town square in Santiago, Chile.

The practice of ‘yarn bombing’ is sort of like graffiti, enlivening objects all around a city with unexpected artistic details. Typically, sections of each piece are pre-made and then quickly knitted together around the object. It’s not unusual to see entire cars and buses covered in colorful yarn creations, but a double-decker seems to take the art of yarn bombing to new heights.

“Knitting and crocheting doesn’t have to be functional, it can be subversive, renegade – even illegal in certain cases. It’s bad ass!” Sayeg told Design Milk. “And it makes me proud, as a woman, to be part of something that is so powerful. Taking this craft that is female dominated onto the streets graffiti style, which is male dominated, is what is appealing (or not) about yarn bombing. As long as it evokes some emotion, I believe it is good.”

Japanese tea houses spring from the roofs of ordinary-looking trucks, ornate handcrafted cabins are tacked onto school buses and fire trucks are converted into monster off-road RVs when industrious and determined DIYers decide to take on building their own mobile homes. One tiny house on wheels even has a back deck with a full-sized hot tub, and an incredibly fun two-story Victorian house on wheels makes its way around the desert.

The Neverwas Haul: A Steampunk Mobile Home

RVs rarely get more ornate than this – a two-story Victorian house on wheels, designed, naturally, for Burning Man. The Neverwas Haul was built over six months in 2006 and is made almost entirely of recycled materials. Designer and builder Shannon O’Hare used the skills and experience he gained creating theme park structures around the country to come up with this amazing vehicle, which is built upon the base of a fifth wheel travel trailer.

Tiny House with a Built-In Hot Tub

You can even tack a generously sized wooden hot tub – powered by wood, if you like! – onto the back of your very own custom-built tiny house. UK-based Tiny Wood Homes builds both hot tubs and little houses on wheels, making this combo a natural fit. The whole setup is small enough to be towed around via truck and sells for about $57,000.

Matthew Hofmann’s Renovated Airstream Trailers

Architect Matthew Hofmann purchases old Airstream trailers and renovates them into beautiful and modern mobile spaces, custom-creating everything from backyard offices to tiny roaming homes. The project began when Hofmann decided to downsize from a large house to an Airstream of his own. People took notice and soon enough, demand turned into a business opportunity.

Wothahellizat

Sound out the name of this creation phonetically – that’s basically the reaction of everyone who sees it. Australian photographer Rob Gray wanted a home base while adventuring in the Australian wilderness, so he created his very own monster RV complete with a viewing deck, hydraulically operated roof and a bedroom over the cab. It’s got all the amenities of a standard camper, but can go off-road.

Al’s Housetruck

What looks like no more than a narrow cabin from the back is revealed to be an incredibly intricate hand-crafted mobile home, built right onto the back of an old Dodge bus. Featured in the 1979 book Rolling Homes by Jane Lidz, ‘Al’s Housetruck‘ has a sleeping loft over the cab, a wood stove, stained glass windows and decorative porch railings.

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