Innovative Model, 1,400-Passenger Straddle Bus Points to Traffic Congestion Relief for China

Is there anyone who’s never dreamed of driving a car on stilts that would magically lift them above the congestion on their local, general purpose road? (Admit it. Of course you have!)

Now a design team in China has come up with a 1,400-passenger bus that does exactly that.

The idea of a straddle bus was first proposed 45 years ago by New York architects Lester Walker and Craig Hodgetts. Now, a prototype has reached model stage, complete with a video that shows the bus zipping along at 40 miles (60 kilometres) per hour and appearing to “eat” the cars passing underneath.

The model was on display in late May at Beijing’s International High-tech Expo.

“Designer Song Youzhou says it will save a lot of road space, costing only 15% what a subway costs but serving pretty much the same function,” Treehugger reports. “It can also be built much more quickly. Given that it has the capacity of 40 buses, it will significantly reduce pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.”

The straddle bus is still at model stage, so it may be a while before the system is ready for prime time. But with more and more crowded urban corridors turning to a combination of rapid transit and managed lanes to clear highway congestion, this design may be one of the next big things on the horizon.

For a one-stop look at the next big things in tolling and transportation technologies, plan on attending IBTTA’s 2016 Summit on All-Electronic Tolling, Managed Lanes and Interoperability, July 24-26, 2016 in Boston.  Register Today!