A "super bus" in development could cut down on traffic jams and pollution in the Chinese city of Beijing.
You’re probably aware of the insane traffic jam in Beijing, which held cars at a virtual standstill for more than ten days. The huge traffic snarl is primarily due to a combination of poor road infrastructure, construction work, and China’s ability to cope with so many cars on the road at once.
With more Chinese people buying cars every day, the problem seems likely to only get worse—but a design firm called Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment has a potential solution: the elevated “super bus.”
The super bus would carry up to 1,400 people in its passenger compartment, and would travel on a rail system that would be elevated above existing roads, so cars could drive beneath it. The bus will run on a combination of electricity and solar power, creating far less pollution than the emissions from the many cars it would be replacing.
Beijing authorities haven’t yet decided whether to create rails for the super bus throughout the city, but they’re willing to give it a test drive: later this year, the firm will lay test tracks along a four-mile stretch, and in 2011 and 2012, the firm will test the superbus with passengers on board.
Depending on how the trials go, officials will decide whether it’s worth expanding the rails throughout the entire city. But according to the government, Beijing is likely to have five million cars on the road by the end of the year—so it sounds like high time to start taking the bus instead.