Watch: China once again unveils an elevated bus that can drive over cars
A strikingly similar model was presented at the same expo in 2010 as well.
On Sunday, at the 19th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo, an idea for an elevated bus was unveiled. A diorama as seen in the video above shows how the "straddling bus", which will run on rails, can glide over cars.
The idea was presented by the Beijing-based Transit Explore Bus, as a way to alleviate not just congestion but also pollution. The bus straddles two lanes on a road, allowing cars and other smaller vehicles to run under it.
Bai Zhiming, an engineer with the project, says, “With a carrying capacity of 1,200 people at a time, the TEB has the same functions as the subway, while its cost of construction is less than one fifth that of the subway. Its construction can be finished in one year.”
CCTV+ also reports that testing for such a bus is planned to start in Qinhuangdao City, north China's Hebei Province, in the second half of 2016.
The idea is not a new one, though. A similar bus, then called the “3D Express Coach”, was also showcased at the expo in 2010. A report in The New York Times from the times states how many provinces had expressed interest in the model.
That plan never came to fruition. A video from 2010 shows Song Youzhou, also involved in this new project, explaining the idea for this odd looking bus.
The idea in fact goes even further back, all the way to 1969. According to a report in Treehugger, two Americans Lester Walker and Craig Hodgetts proposed a similar “bus”. Called the Landliner, their version of this monstrous vehicle never stopped moving, and had claws to lift conventional buses into it.