Someone over at Free Republic (see comment #11) had an amusing comment on the space elevator concept, which brings up a serious issue:

So this elevator “would crawl up a single cable into space over several days.” How would people be able to not start up conversations for that long? Would they be allowed to make eye contact or would they have to look up at the ceiling? What if there’s a pretty girl on the elevator? And would they pipe in Muzak? These are the things that would have to be worked out.

For this reason, and perhaps safety reasons, even if elevators are built, they may be used primarily for bulk cargo, rather than passengers. Given my acrophobia, I know that I personally wouldn’t want to ride one–I don’t even like elevators in medium-size buildings, and you couldn’t get me into a glass one of more than a story or two on a bet.

I still suspect that there will be a market for reliable space transports to get people quickly to and from LEO. From there, cheap propellants made possible by use of extraterrestrial resources (and perhaps the elevator for more sophisticated equipment) will open up the other “half of the way to anywhere.”