China has tested a huge straddle bus, which has a revolutionary design that lets cars drive underneath and can carry up to 1,400 passengers, saving not only the road space but also reducing air pollution.
The whole vehicle, designed to maximize the use of road space, is some 22 meters long and 8 meters wide, which makes it able to blanket multiple lanes of traffic. It was tested on a specially laid track.
Unilke normal buses which can carry a maximum of 100-200 passengers, this newly designed bus can carry up to 1,400 passengers, and travel at a top speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
The transit elevated bus TEB-1, was on road test in Qinhuangdao, north Chinas Hebei Province yesterday, state-run Peoples Daily reported.
The pictures of the bus shows cars passing below it.
The passenger compartment of this futuristic public bus rises far above other vehicles on the road, allowing cars to pass underneath.
The design of the bus made headlines all over the world when it was released in May this year by a Chinese firm.
Also known as a land airbus, the concept was the brainchild of the Beijing-based Transit Explore Bus which displayed in the high-tech expo in the city.
The passenger compartment spans two traffic lanes and sits high above the road surface on a pair of stilts, leaving the road clear for ordinary cars to pass underneath.
Regardless of whether the bus is moving or not, cars under 2 meters high can easily pass through.
"The biggest advantage is that the bus will save lots of road space," Song Youzhou, chief engineer of the straddling bus project told state-run Xinhua news agency in May this year.
Powered by electricity, the straddling bus could replace about 40 conventional buses, potentially saving more than 800 tonnes of fuel annually and reducing 2,480 tonnes of carbon emissions, Song said.
Some Chinese cities have shown interest in the invention.
He added that the bus has the similar function of the subway, but its cost is only 16 per cent of the subway. The manufacturing and construction lead-time is also much shorter.
Furthermore, the design is environmentally friendly.
(PTI inputs)
