By Charles Hibbert
China’s long awaited ‘straddling bus’, which looks like something out of Star Trek, had its big opening moment in Hebei province this week.
The transit-elevated bus is expected to be in full use by the end of the year, but its original testing was positive.
The smart idea only came about in May, with photos of the mini-model released
China’s “elevated bus” that glides over traffic completes first road test https://t.co/D0DzZNgtzO pic.twitter.com/x8siNPjf8W
— CNN (@CNN) August 4, 2016
A month later, developers announced that it would be ready for a test run in August.
The bus, which is powered by electricity, can equal forty normal buses, according to the firm behind it and can travel up to speeds of 60km per hour running on rails laid along ordinary roads.
Carrying up to 300 passengers, being 72 ft(21m) long and 25 ft wide, the bus is one of the most ambitious projects launched and is certainly of the more futuristic projects launched.
The bus is obviously unique in it’s size, but it allows for cars below to pass through.
China’s new elevated bus gets put to the test: https://t.co/Qaan2tzhcK pic.twitter.com/P8jleOuWTo
— Travel + Leisure (@TravelLeisure) August 4, 2016
The maker of the bus, TEB technology says on its website “The invention of the Transit Elevated Bus is considered as a revolution for the environment-friendly public transportation.”
“No more traffic jams”, the website says with some hopefulness.
Despite the huge launch with thousands attending to watch on micro-blogging site Weibo, many of the Chinese public saying the elevated bus is a prime example of a solution to solve a problem, but is only going to cause more problems.