The straddle bus, a new vehicle that is claimed to be able to reduce traffic jams by up to 30 percent and is less costly than subway systems, proved workable in theory, the inventor said recently.
The straddle bus spans two traffic lanes and is 4.5 meters high. It will be used on major roads in cities and could reduce traffic congestion by 20 to 30 percent, according to Song Youzhou.
The bus will run on special tracks with raised sides so cars can pass underneath. It could carry up to 1,400 passengers and travel between 60 and 80 kilometers per hour.
A team led by Professor Zhang Jianwu from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University had conducted research that proved the vehicle could work, said Song, the vehicle s inventor and chairman of Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment.
The cost of manufacturing the bus and building the road facilities was estimated at 50 million yuan (US$7.35 million) per kilometer, about one-tenth the cost of building a subway line over the same length.
The tracks could be laid three times faster than a subway line.
The estimated market value of the system was more than 1 trillion yuan and it could complement subways and buses, according to the inventor.
The emission-free vehicle will run on electricity supplied by solar panels.
Blueprints for the vehicle have been forwarded to a combustion engine manufacturer in Changzhou in Jiangsu Province and a railway wagon manufacturer in Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province.
Both manufacturers are branches of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. (CSR), a State-owned manufacturer of electric locomotives.
Song said he had yet to hear from the two manufacturers.
If things go smoothly, the bus is expected to hit the road by the end of next year, he said.
If it is successful, the straddle bus could ease traffic congestion in Chinese cites, where it is worsening as urban populations grow.
At the end of last year, the country s urban population was 620 million while the number of vehicles totaled 63 million.
Rush hours in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai experience some of the worst congestions in the world.
Despite the invention being hailed as a breakthrough, Luo Jiade, a sociology professor at Qinghua University, was skeptical.
Cities like Beijing have already built subway and bus systems. It will be difficult to integrate so many means of public transport into an organized network, he said.
There should be careful planning before the straddle bus is added to the current transport system.
