Straddle Bus - Has China Solved Traffic?

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But since then, the straddling bus idea has stayed just that—an idea. Song first introduced his version in 2010. While it grabbed international headlines, it never came to fruition. At the time, Beijing said that it had plans to start building roughly five miles of track by the end of the year. But three years down the line, some news outlets began expressing doubt when they saw that no tracks had actually been laid out. This time, according to the Xinhua news agency, the Beijing-based company Transit Explore Bus is currently building a life-size model in Changzhou and they plan to test it in July or August.

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The bus would either run on embedded rails on both sides of the street, or follow painted guide lines, presumably with computer guidance. It would be electrically powered, and travel at about 30 miles per hour. Its cost of construction, according to designers, is less than one-fifth that of a subway, and could be completed in a year. Song has estimated that the straddling bus can replace 40 buses.

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According to Song Youzhou, the project’s chief engineer, "guardrails would be constructed between the bus tracks and the car lanes that pass through the elevated bus" to prevent traffic accidents. "The rails would be able to absorb at least 70% of a collision’s impact to reduce damage to the bus and other vehicles.

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