First published June 11, 2016.
Is this high tech bus model the future of public transportation?
We first saw it at the 2016 China Beijing International High-Tech Expo. The engineers that created it say that this bus would function similarly to a subway but was promoted as costing less to construct, a claim that would need independent evaluation.
It is famous as the Straddling Bus or the Land Airbus. Not only is it amazingly designed, but it also works with the infrastructure of the existing roads - no tunnels for subways required.
The model generated excitement, but a proposed design is not evidence of an operational passenger service.
(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)
A model is the start of a question
The appeal of the elevated bus concept is easy to understand: use the space above traffic rather than add another vehicle to the same queue. This article describes a model shown in 2016, not evidence of a transport system available to passengers today. The distinction matters because a striking demonstration can communicate an idea long before its costs, reliability and everyday operation have been established.
Think through an ordinary journey
To evaluate the proposal, imagine the whole trip rather than the most impressive rendering. Where do passengers board? How would the vehicle turn, pass obstructions or allow an evacuation? How would it interact with vehicles of different heights? Those questions do not remove the value of ambitious design. They show the work required to move from a memorable concept to a service people could use routinely, including passengers whose access needs are not visible in a promotional model.
What happened to the straddling bus
The project did not lead to a working service. It was abandoned in June 2017, and Beijing police arrested 32 people, including the chief executive of the Transit Elevated Bus company, on suspicion of illegal fundraising; reports noted that little technical progress had been made since the concept was first shown in 2010.
Sources: Fortune, 4 July 2017
COMMENTS