Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Stradding buses in Beijing

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Stradding buses in Beijing

China has come out with an innovative concept for solving its public transportation problems. Instead of widening roads, building more bridges or subways, it plans to build huge "straddling buses" that allows cars to pass under it, possibly leading to lower costs. Construction will start in Beijing later this year.

News article:

http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20100807-230939.html

Video of the concept:

http://www.chinahush.com/2010/07/31/straddling-bus-a-cheaper-greener-and-faster-alternative-to-commute/
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5 comments:

Tan Kin Lian said...: I prefer to build elevated roadways to be used only by buses. It should be cheaper in the long run, compared to the straddling buses.; August 23, 2010 7:39 AM
ym said...: the "straddling bus" looks like a train that moves on a road..

ym; August 23, 2010 9:12 AM
C H Yak said...: This is not practical in S'pore. Singapore is too densely built up and congested. Cannot have too frequent stops.

SMRT CEO can squeeze our MRT crush load from 1400 to 2000 passengers per train. LOL. I believe this is more efficient.

This train can only carry 1200 to 1400 passengers @ max 60km per hour. Cost S$100 million to build the bus with a 40km track. Even with our distance-based travelling fares, it might be hard to re-coup.

It is suitable for Beijing because Beijing has 5 concentric rings of roads now with very congested traffic. It is suitable for cities larger than S'pore's size.

It would be practical if you build new highways below with this straddling train on top at one go...a hub as centre with many spokes. But I wonder how to rout them in a circle. It seems like a modern "tram" ... travelling uni-directional.; August 23, 2010 10:27 AM
Jamesneo said...: I like the straddling buses better if it uses more solar energy to power it. I believe that the world is transitioning into an age whereby the oil prices will become very expensive due to the falling supply. If the theory of peak oil is true we have passed the top already and onwards will be declining or less afforable oil supplies.

I am not so sure that elevated highways might be cheaper if we do not want to compromise safety. Highways will become hazards if the government place low priority in maintaining it like what the US is suffering whereby their ageing highways are suffering of old age and lack of repairs. It is much easier to replace a straddling bus individually than maintain the whole highway. Of course, we have to see how their experiments goes and i think safety issues have to be monitored.; August 23, 2010 11:48 AM
hanglian said...: I have this strange feeling that the technologies for cheap and renewable energy that replaces petrol and power generation exist since "yesterday", but for some reasons, they are not make known (conspiracy theory...heh heh).

I also believe that when oil becomes expensive enough, someone will come up with a brilliant technology that's "cheaper" and "better".; August 24, 2010 5:13 AM