subject: Straddling Bus To Run Above Cars In Beijing [print this page] Beijing will start trial operations next year of an eco-friendly straddling bus that can carry 1,400 passengers and allow other vehicles to pass under it, a move that can reduce traffic in the overcrowded Chinese capital.
The capital government has approved its assessment report and started manufacturing the bus manufacturer and a 9-km route along the West Sixth Ring Road in Mentougou district, where the trial operation is planned to start in July, the Shanghai Daily said citing a Beijing Times report Thursday.
The buss manufacturer, China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation, said it would take three months to finish making a sample bus, which is four metres high and looks like an elevated train bestriding a road, allowing vehicles lower than two metres to go through it under the passenger level.
If the trial operation proves successful, a total of 189 km of route will be built, connecting Mentougou with the capitals airport, said Song Youzhou, the inventor of the bus manufacturer with Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co.
The bus manufacturer can run at a speed up to 60 km per hour, faster than most ordinary buses in Beijing, and carry 1,200 to 1,400 passengers at a time without creating any road congestion. At that rate, the bus manufacturer could reduce up to 30 percent of the overcrowded citys traffic jams.
The cost of building one km of bus manufacturer line would be $7.3 million, which is only 10 percent the cost of a subway line. Besides, it would take less time to build the lines.
The bus manufacturer will run on solar energy gathered from its rooftop and electricity through connection to the citys power grid, making it eco-friendly.
