Getting thrown under the bus has a new meaning in China, where a new bus that straddles traffic will allow it to literally rise above traffic jams, as cars drive underneath.
Yesterday, China’s innovative traffic-straddling bus concept began public testing, bringing the project one step closer to becoming a viable form of mass transit. Spearheaded by TEB Technology Development Company, China Xinhua News reports that the first TEB-1, or Transit Elevated Bus, made its maiden voyage on the city streets of Qinhuangdao, in China’s Hebei province. And thanks to Shanghaiist, we have video proof of it:
According to the New York Times, each TEB will cost approximately $4.5 million to build, or almost one-sixteenth the price of a subway train. Already five Chinese cities have signed on for the state-of-the-art bus, including the test site of Qinhuangdao.
At 25 feet wide, the bus allows cars as tall as 7.2 feet to travel underneath it as passengers are carried to and from various elevated stops. The NYT adds that the bus is designed to meet various zoning and height restrictions in each city that’s commissioned it so far. Furthermore, guardrails between the TEB’s tracks and the car lanes beneath it have been proposed as a means of preventing accidents, as well as saving the bus from damage.
While the TEB is very much a real thing, it still has some ways to go before it becomes a scalable form of mass transportation. But clearly, its prospects are looking up.
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