A straddling bus designed by a Shenzhen company has been named one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010 by Time magazine.
The 6-meter-wide vehicle, designed and developed by Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment, runs along a fixed route. Its passenger compartment spans the width of two traffic lanes and sits high above the road surface on a pair of fencelike stilts that leave the road clear for cars to pass underneath.
It is powered by a combination of municipal electricity and solar power derived from panels mounted on the roof and at bus stops.
"What a surprise!" said Song Youzhou, the vehicle's designer. "I'm really excited by it."
In a report in August this year, the New York Times said the "decidedly odd-looking, extra-wide and extra-tall vehicle" which can carry up to 1,200 passengers "offered a traffic fix in China."
Song said he was looking forward to the greater importance the Chinese government would attach to his project following Time's recognition.
"I feel honored and very hopeful [about the future of the bus] with the global influence of Time magazine," Song said to yesterday's Shenzhen Economic Daily.
A pilot project for the vehicle is in the works in Beijing, and several other Chinese cities have shown interest.
Song told the Daily that the Argentinian government had showed huge interest in introducing the bus into the country's public traffic system.
"Other city governments including Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province, Wuhu in Anhui Province and Luzhou in Sichuan Province and multinationals such as Siemens have also contacted us for the invention," he said.
According to Huashi, the vehicle, which will travel at an average speed of 40 kilometers an hour, could reduced traffic jams by 25 to 30 percent on main routes.
The straddling bus could replace up to 40 conventional buses, potentially saving the 860 tons of fuel that 40 buses would consume annually, cutting 2,640 tons of carbon emissions, said Song.
The design highlights a range of issues that have come with explosive economic growth. China's urban population has expanded rapidly in recent years with an estimated additional 350 million people expected to move to cities by 2015, according to a report by consulting firm McKinsey. At the same time, rising affluence has caused the number of cars - and traffic jams - to soar.
The cost of construction - 50 million yuan, or $7.4 million, for one bus and about 25 miles of route facilities - is roughly one-tenth what it costs to build a subway of the same length, according to Song.
Huashi's invention has received a preliminary seal of approval from Beijing. The capital's Mentougou district is testing the technology and plans to start building nine kilometers of route at the end of this year. If the test is successful, 190 kilometers will be built.
Apple's popular iPad tablet computer and the British Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo were among Time's 50 best inventions.
(SD News)
