Urban Transport

Could the go-go-gadget straddling bus be headed for the U.S.?

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The Elevated High-Speed Bus could be headed for U.S. streets
The Elevated High-Speed Bus
The Elevated High-Speed Bus could be headed for U.S. streets
The Elevated High-Speed Bus
The Elevated High-Speed Bus
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The giant Straddling Bus we reported on earlier this year could be headed to the U.S. This week the inventor of the bus, Mr. Song Youzhou, announced that his Shenzhen-based company is aiming to form partnerships or licensing agreements with specialized manufacturers to build the vehicle for the American market. Designed as a way to reduce traffic snarls without the need for much in the way of new infrastructure, the “Elevated High-Speed Bus” straddles two lanes of traffic allowing cars to drive underneath.

The bus is designed to travel on rails or special painted guidelines and each bus contains four compartments that can carry “hundreds of passengers”. With a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph) and average speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) the mega buses should be able to outpace ordinary buses, which the company says have an average speed of 20 km/h (12 km/h) – although whether there’s enough clearance for them to literally overtake an ordinary bus is another matter.

The Elevated High-Speed Bus

The bus is also greener than existing diesel-powered buses, being fueled by municipal electricity and solar power, which is supplemented by solar energy collected by panels on the oversized roof. Additional benefits of the bus listed by the company include reduced traffic congestion and lower construction cost and time when compared to other public transportation solutions.

Mark Shieh, a spokesman for the new venture said, "relative to the cost of a subway line or other rail transit, our bus delivers extraordinary value. Aside from the low cost, the time for construction is about one third that for a subway."

The Shenzhen-based company plans to start building the buses in 2011 in China where traffic jams have become commonplace – in August this year a massive 100 km (62 mile) long traffic jam near Beijing slowed vehicles to a crawl for nine days.

The Amercian venture, US Elevated High-Speed Bus (Group) Inc., is responsible for business development in the Americas and Europe. In addition to looking for U.S. based manufacturers, it is also interested in transport industry manufacturers in Central America, South America and Europe.

Shieh said a motor home, RV, train or bus manufacturer with production facilities in the U.S. that is looking to diversify would be an ideal partner for the U.S. venture. You’d imagine any potential partners would be inclined to wait and see how the things progress in China before committing money to what seems like a risky venture, but maybe there’s a U.S. company adventurous enough to take the leap. We’ll wait and see.

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11 comments
Gianluca Sini
I can\'t see a pratical way to make it turn. It can be used only on a straight course.
Techtwit
Can you imagine the traffic jam? One broken down mega bus and the entire fleet backs up behind it. Just ask any UK rail traveller.
franciswildwood
this is an awesome idea.....until someone gets wasted and crashes into it....the majority of people don\'t know how to drive well, and I can only imagine how many people will either be drunk and crash into this, or crash into it since they suck at driving....or aren\'t paying attention....
habakak
Gianluca Sini said it. This is hogwash and even if it COULD travel at 80 mph (or even 1000 mph for that matter), it would never average those speeds in a city. My car can reach 60 mph from a standstill in under 5 seconds, yet my avg moving speed for suburban driving (don\'t even think about city driving) is around 35mph. Potential speeds means squat.
Rex Alfie Lee
I think it\'s a great idea. Bagging out things that are different is an easy thing to do. As for the turning extended buses already do this so why not this one which is on rails so the steering side of things is contained. Great idea but why not just ban cars from inner cities & use buses anyway...
Rick Wagner
I agree with franciswildwood about all the foolish drivers out there talking on their cell phones and harming others. I mean, like how important was the phone call anyhow? Was it important enough to take someone else\'s life? Or destroy their property? But this is the society we\'ve created.. so I guess there\'s not more to say on the issue.
Altug Halazaoglu
we need to built smart highways.Network of computers need to control our highways.
Angel Miranda Jr
This is different.
Daniel Howard
This would be great but how would you turn out from under it or change lanes? You would have to be going the same place as the straddling bus. Look at the pic.... there are rails on either side of it that the bus rides on. Good idea but has major issues.
Pritesh Desai
This transportation should be done in two levels . Lower level will carry all the vehicular traffic and upper level will carry these giant transportation. same way we can have multiple level of transportation. Look like this is going to be a future. Driving this thing on the same road is the major issue here. If driven on different level where traffic can pass without fear make sense. Upper level construction can be done completely separately without stopping ongoing traffic. Upper level specs will be completely similar as the guys who explained this. It will be a bit more expensive than proposed plan but it is better plan because we can have multiple levels. Of course there will be accidents nobody can escape from that but hope it won\'t be fatal. Adding further upper level construction will be 85 % less costly then building entire road. This gadget doesn\'t need that much space at the center so maintainability won\'t be an issue. Beautiful concept!