So, in theory, would this allow for an elevator to transport people horizontally over large distances?  Or just empty cars?<br><br>In several pieces of science fiction, there are extremely large spacecraft.  For example, the Super Star Destroyer in Star Wars is over 8 kilometres long.  While that is technically a walkable distance, I'd imagine the Imperial Navy doesn't want their troops taking half a day to walk from their quarters to their on-duty post (some could be positioned close by, but maintenance crews kinda have to go wherever the broken thing is).  While the ship is actually big enough that you could literally just build a deck that has a highway system and bus people around, the authors of the Star Wars books that actually go into enough detail describe an elevator (well, turbolift, because this is a world where concrete is now duracrete and plastic is plasteel, glass is transperisteel, etc) that has free 3D movement - you can hop into a lift at the bow and get out at the starboard hangar bay 2 decks down amidships.<br><br>Looking at the design, I can see it being theoretically possible to manage 2D transport - it actually looks kind of like a train rail network, just...small and on a wall instead of big and on the ground, so going forward and back (with the perspective of the door being the front of the elevator car) would be problematic.  However, I can see the possibility that the car can't take the load of a person IN the car when doing the sideways travel, depending on how that connection is designed - strength is often very different depending on how you apply the load, so turning the connectors all 90 degrees kinda means you can't assume anything about the strength anymore.