The Bus That Rides Above Traffic 371
An anonymous reader writes "China is the new tech king. They're developing a new, two-lane bus system that travels over traffic below. It's claimed to cost 10% of a subway system and use 30% less energy than current bus technologies." This one has been boggling my brain. I can't see how this is a good idea or safe. But it sure is awesome.
Re:Since when... (Score:3, Informative)
Most of that stuff was invented independently in Europe, so even if China never existed, we'd still have those items.
Plus you gave credit for some things that were actually invented by the Arabs or the Romans/Greeks. Like the compass.
Re:Safety is very far from their minds (Score:3, Informative)
1. Foundations under the roads would have to be completely redone to support the extra weight, trains have large supports under the rails to support the weight of the trains, so its not just a simple cut holes put in rails, and drive.
Looks like the rails steer it and regular tires support the weight.
I imagine old fashioned cable cars (frisco?) work the same way, in that the cable provides the "pull" but the cable cars do not by any means hang from the cable. (an Aerial Tramway is a totally different concept and does in fact hang from the cable)
The vehicles have a small surface area that contacts the ground
I would not worry so much about tire friction as about wind surface area. Coasties are supposed to know all about hurricanes, but even Chicago "the windy city" can't use these. The center of gravity being extremely high, I'd think the odds of overturning in a breeze would be high. In addition to the dynamic stability issues of basically being a ten foot tall upside down pendulum even under ideal conditions.
Re:Since when... (Score:3, Informative)
What whitewashed history book did you read? Even http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass [wikipedia.org] says that the compass was invented in China.
Re:Shades of Oakland (Score:3, Informative)
It also requires special infrastructure to be built, it CANT drive off the tracks it's already on.
Build an elevated platform, slap a train up there. CALL IT DONE.
Re:Looks nifty assuming no one crashes into the ra (Score:5, Informative)
Therefore they're not better drivers. And I think the statistics do indicate that drivers in China are worse than those in the US.
As for anecdotal evidence:
1) A friend of mine has a chinese wife. When he was visiting her relatives in China, he had the opportunity to get into the driver's seat and started adjusting the rearview mirror. His wife's relatives at the back asked what he was doing, and it seems they were unclear on the concept of the rear view mirror, and they used it more as a vanity mirror
2) Another friend of mine visited China and his taxi driver drove the wrong way around the roundabout just because it was a shorter distance.
3) When my brother went to China, his van driver drove on the wrong side of the road for a significant period till oncoming traffic almost hit them - then the van driver swerved to the correct side. What bothered my brother a lot was that the driver actually looked scared by the incident.
4) I personally know people who have gone to china and not come back alive because of traffic accidents.
In contrast I do not hear of such problems from friends or relatives going to USA, UK or Australia. I have had friends who had problems with "black ice" in the UK, fortunately nonfatal, but that's a different thing.
Re:Truck "Repellent" System (Score:3, Informative)
I can read Chinese...well I mean I am a Chinese that RTA and let me do the translation for you.
Their answer is to have traffic light system that will allow the bus to turn in the intersection while stopping traffic that will be going straight through.
Also as you can see in the simulation, there are 4 lanes (In fact a lot of major local roads in Beijing are 4 lanes per direction, so does the beltway).
I wonder if you want to change lane from the inner two to the outer two...you gotta make the decision fast before the bus come!
Some translation points... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Congestion? (Score:3, Informative)
I was very impressed by the video, but I also worry about how to change the lange when under the "bus."
In the video they say it is much faster to build such a highway than building subway. And the bus is driven by both solar energy and electricity.
What I find also cool, if not better, is the suspended railway [wikipedia.org] in the German town Wuppertal. It seems to me it as all of the advantages, minus maybe time and money, and avoids the trap problem.
Re:The best of both worlds (Score:3, Informative)
I know, this is Slashdot, but I think that you need to read the article. Don't worry, it is only one paragraph, a few pictures, and a short embedded video which you can probably skip. They are not talking about elevated bus lanes, which would be a good idea---dedicated bus lanes in Seattle and LA seem to work pretty well in those cities, and taking it one step further sounds good to me. Instead, they are talking about building buses that are two lanes wide, which would be suspended above the rest of traffic. It seems that they would be laying track in the roads (like the old street cars of SF), and the buses would be confined to these tracks. In traffic, the buses could drive over other vehicles.
Re:Shades of Oakland (Score:4, Informative)
it was attempted [pittsburghlive.com] in the 60's. Pittsburgh does now have separate busways, but not elevated.
Re:Looks nifty assuming no one crashes into the ra (Score:2, Informative)