Serpo
7th August 2010, 10:16 PM
A giant bus which runs on wheeled "legs" that allow cars to drive underneath it has been designed by a Chinese company.
The huge vehicle is as wide as two road lanes and 18 feet tall, carries more than 300 passengers per bus, and its electric motors run partly on solar power. The bus network could carry as many as 1,400 passengers at once.
Its designers say it can reduce traffic congestion in China's crowded cities by as much as 30 per cent.
Furthermore, it is said that each bus can reduce fuel use by 860 tons per year, bringing carbon emissions down by 2,640 tons.
Song Youzhou, the chairman of Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Company, the firm behind the buses, says: "The main innovation of the straddling bus is that it runs above cars and under overpasses. Its biggest strengths are saving road space, efficiency and high capacity."
The bus will need to have the roads it runs on redesigned - either with rails for the bus to run on, or simple white lines that an automated system can use as guides. The rails would be more expensive, but Mr Youzhou says they would make the buses a further 30 per cent more efficient. Building the buses and a 40km (25 mile) track for it would cost 500 million yuan (£46.5 million), about 10 per cent the cost of the equivalent distance of underground railway.
In the event of emergencies, passengers would escape from the bus using an inflatable slide, like on passenger aircraft.
It is expected to be put into use in Beijing's Menougou District in the "near future", although a specific time frame is not known.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/green-motoring/7930484/Giant-bus-which-drives-over-cars-planned-in-China.html?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=TD_giantbus&utm_campaign=motoring0608Pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQxP_un15iQ&feature=player_embedded#!
The huge vehicle is as wide as two road lanes and 18 feet tall, carries more than 300 passengers per bus, and its electric motors run partly on solar power. The bus network could carry as many as 1,400 passengers at once.
Its designers say it can reduce traffic congestion in China's crowded cities by as much as 30 per cent.
Furthermore, it is said that each bus can reduce fuel use by 860 tons per year, bringing carbon emissions down by 2,640 tons.
Song Youzhou, the chairman of Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Company, the firm behind the buses, says: "The main innovation of the straddling bus is that it runs above cars and under overpasses. Its biggest strengths are saving road space, efficiency and high capacity."
The bus will need to have the roads it runs on redesigned - either with rails for the bus to run on, or simple white lines that an automated system can use as guides. The rails would be more expensive, but Mr Youzhou says they would make the buses a further 30 per cent more efficient. Building the buses and a 40km (25 mile) track for it would cost 500 million yuan (£46.5 million), about 10 per cent the cost of the equivalent distance of underground railway.
In the event of emergencies, passengers would escape from the bus using an inflatable slide, like on passenger aircraft.
It is expected to be put into use in Beijing's Menougou District in the "near future", although a specific time frame is not known.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/green-motoring/7930484/Giant-bus-which-drives-over-cars-planned-in-China.html?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=TD_giantbus&utm_campaign=motoring0608Pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQxP_un15iQ&feature=player_embedded#!