China Plans Huge Buses That Can DRIVE OVER Cars

[no_name]

*Hi mods : I put this under china defense section because it is a chinese project, if you feel it belongs in another section please kindly move it but don't delete the thread.*

China Plans Huge Buses That Can DRIVE OVER Cars (PHOTOS) - Yahoo! News

China Plans Huge Buses That Can DRIVE OVER Cars

"China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases and biggest energy consumer.

But the country is also thinking in big and bold ways when it comes to how it will reduce pollution and a new plan to build a "straddling bus" is among the most space-age schemes yet.

In an effort to go green and relieve congestion without widening roads, the Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment company is developing a "3D Express Coach" (also known as a "three-dimensional fast bus").

The innovation will allow cars less than 2 meters high to travel underneath the upper level of the vehicle, which will be carrying passengers (PHOTOS).

According to China Hush, the 6-meter-wide 3D Express Coach will be powered by a combination of electricity and solar energy, and will be able to travel up to 60 kilometers per hour carrying some 1200 to 1400 passengers.

The first 115 miles of track is set for construction in Beijing's Mentougou district starting in late 2010. The Chairman of the Huashi Future Parking Equipment company boasts it will take only a year and 500 million yuan (around $73 million) to build the futuristic transportation system. "

It's nice to see some innovative thoughts put into reducing city congesting and reducing pollution due to less traffic hold up. It can almost be compared to a MTR without separate infrastructure.

Concept pictures below:

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[graphican]

Oh that is such a sexy concept! Love it!
Thats probably the best solution to over-crowded roads! Amazing balls they are.

 

[whocares]

Oh that is such a sexy concept! Love it!
Thats probably the best solution to over-crowded roads! Amazing balls they are.

who did you call amazing balls? the buses or the chinese?

 

[no_name]

The article below provides much more detail, and also video and translation.

“Straddling” bus–a cheaper, greener and faster alternative to commute ChinaHush

A big concern on top of urban transportation planner’s mind is how to speed up the traffic: putting more buses on the road will jam the roads even worse and deteriorate the air; building more subway is costly and time consuming. Well, here is an cheaper, greener and fast alternative to lighten their mind up a bit: the straddling bus, first exhibited on the 13th Beijing International High-tech Expo in May this year. In the near future, the model is to be put into pilot use in Beijing’s Mentougou District (bjnews). (The official site of the high-tech expo put it as 3D fast bus, which I think is more confusing, for now I’ll just call it the straddling bus.)

Proposed by Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd, the model looks like a subway or light-rail train bestriding the road. It is 4-4.5 m high with two levels: passengers board on the upper level while other vehicles lower than 2 m can go through under. Powered by electricity and solar energy, the bus can speed up to 60 km/h carrying 1200-1400 passengers at a time without blocking other vehicles’ way. Also it costs about 500 million yuan to build the bus and a 40-km-long path for it, only 10% of building equivalent subway. It is said that the bus can reduce traffic jams by 20-30%.

Here is the presentation by Song Youzhou, chairman of Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd.

Translation:

What you can see from the video is traffic jams, what you can hear is noise, and there is also invisible air pollution. At present, there are mainly 4 types of public transits in China: subway, light-rail train, BRT, and normal bus. They have advantages and disadvantages, for example, subway costs a lot and takes long time to build; BRT takes up road spaces and produces noises as well as pollution to the air. How to develop environmental-friendly public transportation? Straddling bus provides a solution. Let’s watch a demonstration.

The straddling bus combines the advantages of BRT, it is also a substitution for BRT and subway in the future. As you all know, the majority vehicle on the road is car, the shortest vehicle is also car. Normally our overpass is 4.5-5.5 m high. The highlight innovation of straddling bus is that it runs above car and under overpass. Its biggest strength is saving road spaces, efficient and high in capacity. It can reduce up to 25-30% traffic jams on main routes. Running at an average 40 km/h, it can take 1200 people at a time, which means 300 passengers per cart.

Another strength of straddling bus is its short construction life cycle: only 1 year to build 40 km. Whereas building 40-km subway will take 3 years at best. Also the straddling bus will not need the large parking lot that normal buses demand. It can park at its own stop without affecting the passage of cars. This is what the interior looks like: it has huge skylight that will eliminate passengers’ sense of depression when enter.

There are two parts in building the straddling bus. One is remodeling the road, the other is building station platforms. Two ways to remodel the road: we can go with laying rails on both sides of car lane, which save 30% energy; or we can paint two white lines on both sides and use auto-pilot technology in the bus, which will follow the lines and run stable.

There are also two ways in dealing with station platform. One is to load/unload through the sides; the other is using the built-in ladder so that passengers can go up and to the overpass through the ceiling door.

Straddling bus is completely powered by municipal electricity and solar energy system. In terms of electricity, the setting is called relay direct current electrification. The bus itself is electrical conductor, two rails built on top to allow the charging post to run along with the bus, the next charging post will be on the rails before the earlier one leaves, that is why we call it relay charging. It is new invention, not available yet in other places.

The set here is super capacitor, a device that can charge, discharge and store electricity quickly. The power it stores during the stop can support the bus till the next stop where another round of charging takes place, achieving zero toxic gas throughout the process.

About the ultrasonic waves put forth from the end of the bus, that is to keep those high cars or trucks away from entering the tunnel. Using laser ray to scan, cars get too close to the passage will activate the alarm on the bus end. Inside the bus, there are turning lights that indicate a the bus is intending to make a turn to warn the cars inside. Also radar scanning system is embedded on the walls to warn cars from getting too close to the bus wheels.

Nowadays many big cities have remodeled their traffic signaling system, to prioritize public buses, that is to say when a bus reaches a crossing, red light on the other side of the fork will turn on automatically to give buses the right of way. Our straddling bus can learn from this BRT method. The car can make the turn with the bus if that is the direction it wants to go too; if not, the red light will be on to stop the cars beneath while the bus take the turn.

The bus is 6 m in width and 4-4.5 m high. How will people get off the bus if an accident happens to such a huge bus? Here I introduce the most advanced escaping system in the world. In the case of fire or other emergencies, the escaping door will open automatically. I believe many of you have been on a plane. Planes are equipped with inflated ladder so people can slide down on it in emergency. I put the escaping concept into the straddling bus. It is the fastest way to escape.

The bus can save up to 860 ton of fuel per year, reducing 2,640 ton of carbon emission. Presently we have passed the first stage demonstration and will get through all of the technical invalidation by the end of August. Beijing’s Mentougou District is carrying out a eco-community project, it has already planned out 186 km for our straddling bus. Construction will begin at year end.

Thank you.


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[MilesTogo]

Great initiative!!

 

[SXNJ]

excellent idea

 

[ao333]

who did you call amazing balls? the buses or the chinese?

I think he meant Indians.

 

[Solomon2]

It is more like a cross between a streetcar and subway rather than a "bus", however, because like a streetcar it travels using the street and other straddles can't pass it, yet like a subway passengers can only get on and off at designated stations.

However, I think the maximum length of a straddle bus is quite short. The reason is that in any turn the middle part of the bus (between the wheels) will swing into the roadway. So you can still have that marvelous six-meter width, but either the buses will be only a few meters long or else they'll have to be articulated cars like a train, which strikes me as a difficult endeavor for a straddle; the wider the vehicle, the more rounded the ends of the cars have to be, thus the amount of usable interior space decreases.

 

[Blueblood]

Is that true?I've never heard of this

 

[FreekiN]

That... is genius...

 

[True_Pakistan_Zindabad]

This is why we need to learn Chinese.

 

[CardSharp]

Gosh count me as thinking this is retarded. Beijing traffic is bad enough without a crippled 4 meter high retard bus causing stoppages.

Am I the only one nastalegic about these things

Though I do remember them being red not blue

ahh these are the ones I remember

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

who did you call amazing balls? the buses or the chinese?

I think he meant Amazing brains.

@ontopic

Innovative,quick,cheap and green thats what we all need now.

 

[whocares]

the chinese sure got some spunk. we're horrible with infrastructure.

 

[graphican]

who did you call amazing balls? the buses or the chinese?

I hope busses don't have "balls" but wheels. Think what I would've meant.

Chinese are great Nation. from a survey I came to know the only country in the world with 110% IQ was China. They are great people and great friends. We have many things to celebrate with them and for them.