Innovative Bus Design That Drives Over Cars On The Road!
Innovative Bus Design
Known as the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) the vehicle is designed to use ordinary roads and is able to glide over the top of traffic, straddling the cars which pass beneath its hollow underbelly.
China has been playing around with the innovative concept for a number of years but for the longest time it remained in the domain of fancy rendering software.
However the project received renewed momentum in May when a small scale model was unveiled at the 19th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo, prompting fresh excitement for the idea.
On Tuesday the first version of the infamous bus went on its maiden test run in Qinhuangdao City in the northern Hebei province, paving the way for what authorities hope will be a much needed solution to the growing problem of traffic congestion in many of China’s big cities.
The test in Qinhuangdao City evaluated the braking system as well as the drag and power consumption of the bus carriage, according to tebtech, a company that helped build the bus.
The bus is expected to reach speeds of 60 kilometres per hour and will be able to zip over other vehicles, provided they can fit under its 2.1 metre undercarriage.
The single compartment built and tested was 22m long with a spacious interior measuring 7.8m wide, allowing a capacity of 300 passengers.
The completed version is expected to have four of the trialled compartments attached end-to-end with lead engineer Bai Zhiming previously telling China’s Central Television network, CCTV News, that the bus would have a “carrying capacity of 1200 people at a time.”
Ramps which deploy from the sides of the bus will allow passengers to board from street level.
“The TEB has the same functions as the subway while its cost of construction is less than one fifth of the subway,” Zhiming said.
The bus is two lanes wide and is designed to run on special tracks either side of the road, meaning the tracks would need to be constructed along certain routes before the bus could be rolled out.
However the test run yesterday hardly replicated the real-life road conditions the bus will need to navigate if it’s going to be the traffic congestion panacea it’s creators are touting it as.
Instead the vehicle was contained to a 300m long track which featured limited turns and tightly controlled traffic conditions.
While the successful test was a major step for the project, questions still remain about how the bus will handle the unpredictability of China’s increasingly busy roadways.
But at this rate, those questions could be answered very soon. For More Info: http://www.news.com.au/
