China Builds 'Elevated Bus' That Drives Over Cars (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Remember that futuristic bus design from China a few months ago? China has actually built it and is testing it on the streets. The Transit Elevated Bus or TEB-1, as it's called, stands nearly 16 feet tall and straddles two lanes of traffic, allowing cars to pass under it. The hope is for TEB-1 to someday alleviate major traffic in China and other crowded countries. Washington Post reports: "The Transit Elevated Bus piloted in China's Hebei province rolls along a designated track, making it similar in some ways to a commuter train or tram -- the key difference, of course, being that it runs on top of the existing roadway without the need to construct a separate overpass. Images distributed by Chinese media show a spacious passenger compartment -- measuring 72 feet long by 26 feet wide -- capable of holding up to 300 riders. Surprisingly, there are not very many seats. That would probably have to change should an American model ever come to fruition." The concept of the elevated bus first arrived in 2010, where the company claimed it would "cost 10% of a subway system and use 30% less energy than current bus technologies."

Comments

How do you take a turn?

[Edis Krad]

I still can't wrap my head around the idea of turning when you're stuck under that beast. I imagine there would have to changes to traffic law to fix that. Let the behemoth pass over you first before you can take a left or right.

Re:How do you take a turn?

[Harlequin80]

Lol. If you ever go to China then you will understand that written road rules don't really seem to matter. There is a definite attitude of biggest gets right of way. If you get hit by this thing you are going to be the one in trouble.

Re:How do you take a turn?

[goombah99]

What if you have a dozen crates of chickens on top of your car?

Re:Does it drive under bridges?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Once.

Re:Seems like

[speedplane]

Exactly the kind of government pork projects that we undertake in the USA. Except it would take 11 years and tens if billions of taxpayer dollars to get the pilot off the ground, which would fail miserably, then be abandoned.

China today is like the U.S. in the 40s to 70s. And I mean that in a good way.

Re:Terminology

[Sique]

Why do you think a bus cannot run on rails?

In Europe, rail-bound busses are very common, they are actually called railbusses.

Re:I don't see how this saves money

[larryjoe]

There is a lot to criticize in this project, but the pace in which China can take crazy ideas, add manufacturing innovation, and put them into the real world is pretty spectacular.

It's definitely a crazy idea, but not necessarily more crazy than the hyperloop. China is to be applauded for trying a crazy new idea, which hopefully will allow them to observe and improve any significant deficiencies.

Re:Kapew

[6Yankee]

They're right here INSISTING that well, okay okay, it got built, but IT'LL NEVER WORK! Because turns and trucks and bridges and all KINDS of DUH OBVIOUS real-world stuff (not that they've ever seen it, holed up their moms' basements) that those stupid "engineers" CLEARLY haven't thought about before pissing away MILLIONS on this thing!

In other words, a normal day on Slashdot. :)

Re:First Post !

[Maritz]

I would think it would wreak disaster in the wrong hands

It sure would. That's what's unique to this vehicle. A train in the wrong hands, a cargo ship or oil tanker, an A380 airplane - you could never cause harm with these vehicles no matter what you did with them. But this little bus on rails - fucking lethal. They better keep a lid on this shit.