Transportation

While many of the traditional means of transportation can be found within Ximea, the continent's rugged geography and widely distributed population centers require certain unique adaptations. Combined with Ximea's techologically forward and environmentally conscious culture, these adaptations have resulted in a nation with a larger market for airships than automobiles.

Most Ximean citizens own a hoverbike or hoverboard for personal transportation over short distances. Within cities, transportation at greater distances, or while carrying large quantities of material, tends to be divided between the use of personal automobiles and public transportation. Most, but not all, roads permit electric or biodiesel vehicles, including motorcycles, sedans, lorries, and intermediate classes such as pickup trucks and SUVs. It is therefore possible to reach almost any point in a city from any other point in that city while driving such a vehicle. Many citizens find it more cost-effective to use the ubiquitous monorail networks, which have coverage almost as complete as the roads. Even taking into account the average wait for a monocar, one of which arrives at each station approximately every 15 minutes, it is often slightly faster to take the rail than to drive. Tourists, and citizens who prefer to make ostentatious displays, sometimes travel about in rickshaws operated by electronically-controlled reanimated human and partly-human bodies.

For travel between cities, citizens and industries have the option to use either mag-lev trains or airships. Mag-lev trains connect every major city in Ximea, and at 350 kilometers per hour at top speed, are the uncontested fastest way to travel. Airships are slower, but large craft offer much greater cargo capacity. Small airships are relatively cheap, and many Ximean families and individuals own airships for long-distance trips. Due to safety regulations, airship balloons are highly compartmentalized and filled with helium, which is abundant in Ximea thanks to the nation's fusion generators. Helicopters and other VTOL craft are commonly used for transport to and from areas not serviced by the mag-lev network, especially when speed is required.

For shipping and travel between the three Ximean landmasses, or between Ximea and other nations, one can utilize ships or airplanes. Ximean ships are predominantly powered by biodiesel, although large vessels often utilize a small nuclear reactor. Airplanes are of the traditional airliner or cargo plane variety; unlike most other Ximean vehicles, most airplanes are imported rather than manufactured domestically. Due to Ximea's rugged terrain, only the largest cities, and cities which happen to lay on unusually flat land, have invested in the construction of international airports.