Buses Should Rise Above Traffic To Cut Congestion, Save Fuel, Says Chinese Firm
By John O'Dell August 19, 2010
Drawing shows cars driving beneath a giant "straddling bus" that arches above road on tall stilts.
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Tired of those diesel-belching buses (or even the clean natural gas models) that jam the roads as they edge to the curb every few blocks to let passengers on and off?
A Chinese company may have an answer.
Why not buses - big ones - that rise above the road on stilts, forming a moving tunnel under which regular traffic can continue to move even when the bus is stationary? And why not, as they no longer take up road space, make them big, really big, and cover their roofs with solar cells to help the make clean electric power that runs 'em?
Shenzen Huashi Future Parking Equipment, a company in southern China, asked those questions and came up with the design for an electric bus that answers them with a big "why not?"
It's called the "straddling bus' because it straddles the road and its gone beyond idea - a pilot project is underway in Beijing where one of the sprawling city's regional government authorities says it will build a 5.6-mile test route by the end of the year and, if the test shows the bus really works, will add 116 more miles over the next few years.
Several other Chinese cities have applied for financing to build straddling bus projects of their own, and the New York Times reports that South China Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp. plans to start building the first of the giant electric buses later this month.
The bus, which looks in drawings to be about 15 feet tall, can't use roads that go through tunnels or are crossed by overpasses, railroad bridges or other obstacles. But on a smooth, wide-open roadway they'd work like this:
The bus body would be very long, as wide as two traffic lanes and articulated to enable it to flex around curves. It would arch over the road on full-length stilts, or legs, that carried the wheels and kept the underside of the bus body high enough to permit cars and SUVs to pass underneath.
Shenzhen Huashi says its straddling bus would carry up to 1,200 passengers - replacing as many as 40 conventional buses - and could reduce traffic jams in Beijing and other crowded Chinese cities by 30 percent.
It also would save almost 900 tons of fuel and eliminate more more than 2,500 tons of CO2 emissions each year, the company says.
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Click here to comment on this entry.On a recent trip to Beijing i was astounded that whenever there's a car accident, no matter how small the fender bender might be, all involved vehicles stay exactly where they're at until police show up and take a report. One small fender bender that crosses a lane could delay this straddling bus for a half hour or more - and i witnessed several large and small accidents where the vehicles were covering more than one lane.
On a side note, i'm skeptical that the asphalt can support the weight of the straddling bus. Seems like a prescription for constantly damaged roads. Hope they're leaning toward rails instead of tires.
This seems like a great idea to me, if they can pull it off. I think the more public transit is separated from regular traffic the better. If people end up being stuck on a bus because of traffic, there's not much incentive to use public transportation. It's already going to be slower than driving as it is.
Be careful when changing lanes, passing an onramp, driving a truck, etc.
This thing needs to stay imaginary. Why not just build a long bus that fits in one lane?
biggest problem with regular buses is they are stuck in the same traffic as everyone else.
If they can make it work this is a good idea.... and knowing the Chinese they have a good chance of making it work.
Give it more wheels to distribute the weight so it won't wear out the roadway. Additional wheels are needed anyway, to get it to go around curves without fishtailing into cars alongside and underneath.
The law would have to be changed regarding clearing damaged vehicles from the road following collisions. It's not the bus itself but rather the upwards of 1000 passengers inside delayed by the collision that would spark a change.
Some models will fit in underpasses that trucks can go under, the only consequences is that only small cars can go under the bus.
It would not be hard to put up additional traffic lights where the bus comes down an on ramp. The bus itself would not be turning and changing lanes all over the place, just at designated locations where traffic lights are provided for the bus.
The bus undercarriage will take up some road width. Most likely there would be just one lane of cars underneath or else the bus would infringe on the lane to the left. Also if the lanes under the bus are not of generous width, drivers themselves would crowd the center line and force a single file.
Other questions: http://www.cockam.com/stradbus.htm
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