A big concern on top of urban transportation planner's mind is how to speed up the traffic: putting more buses on the road will jam the roads even worse and deteriorate the air; building more subways is costly and time consuming. A cheaper, greener and faster alternative could be the straddling bus, developed by a Chinese consortium and first exhibited as a mock-up on the recent Beijing International High-tech Expo.
In the near future, the model is to be put into pilot use in Beijing's Mentougou District, as an alternative for a BRT system or a subway. Proposed by Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd. it looks like a kind of moving fly-over. The vehicle is 4-4.5 m high and has two levels: passengers board on the upper level while vehicles not higher than 2 m can go through under. Powered by electricity and solar energy, the bus can speed up to 60 km/h carrying 1200-1400 passengers at a time, which means 300 passengers per cart, without blocking other vehicles' way. Also it costs about 500 million yuan to build the bus and a 40-km-long path for it, only 10% of building equivalent subway. The initiators expect that the bus can reduce traffic jams by 20-30%, thus helping to save up to 860 ton of fuel per year and reducing the carbon emission with 2,640 ton annually.
Another strength of straddling bus is its short construction period: it takes only one year to build 40 km. The straddling bus will be running continuously, so does not need any parking space. The only necessary adaptations to the infrastructure are a remodelling of the road, the other is building station platforms. There are two ways to remodel the road: by laying rails on both sides of the car lane, or drive along white lines on both sides of the road by using auto-pilot technology in the bus.
The straddling bus is completely electrically powered, running from one charging point to the other, where supercapacitors in the bus will be filled quickly with energy. This energy is then used to move the bus to the next stop/charging station. In case of fire or other emergencies, an emergency door will open automatically.
