50 lane traffic jam in Beijing.
Posted on 08/07/2016 10:16:37 AM PDT by plain talk
WELL BLOW US down: Those scrappy engineers did it. They built that crazy straddling bus a Chinese company announced three months ago, and damned if it doesn’t work. This weird wonder—officially, it’s the “Transit Elevated Bus”—gets through traffic by driving over it. And according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, it got through Tuesday’s test drive in Qinhuangdao without decapitating a single Geely Panda.
Some specs: This thing is 68.9 feet long, 25.6 feet wide, and 15.7 feet tall. “There’s enough space on this for old ladies to have a dance performance,” wrote one Weibo user. One carriage can carry as many as 400 people, and as many as four carriages can be linked like a train following a mostly straight track. (The straddling bus does not do 90-degree angles.) They’re electric, and the designers say one four-carriage “train” could replace 40 conventional buses, cutting fuel consumption by 882 tons per year.
(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...
50 lane traffic jam in Beijing.
I think it’s a brilliant concept. But there’s theory and then there’s reality ...
Can’t read the article without subscribing.
Anyone that has been to China knows how well this will work....
Many motorcycles will be ground up.
Some claustrophobic driver will swerve, and bam!!!
Hmm. I can read the story just fine.
Here is another excerpt I found interesting.
"To run a straddling bus in a real-life city, you must prevent dumb drivers from doing dumb things. Although this thing is nearly 16 feet tall, it has a ground clearance of just 7 feet. (Don’t wander onto the wrong Qinhuangdao street, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.) It’s entirely possible an SUV could get stuck underneath, and trucks? Don’t even think about it. The standard clearance for an American tractor-trailer is 13.5 feet. Keeping tall vehicles out of the way requires filtering them. Maybe those yellow clearance bars you see in parking garages? Because—roll tape—signs aren’t good enough."
It’s already a reality... brilliant idea.
Cool idea, if they can make it work. One of the biggest thing mentioned in the article is the need to take your exit and that thing is up over the top of you. THAT is a problem.
With any luck they’ll publish the resulting carnage on u-toob...
Motorcycles? You mean those three wheel bicycles with a cargo bed in back? Saw one carrying about 20 five gallon water jugs.
YES!
First question?
Will they run counter flow?
2ed?
How does the, 'end of line' work?
I agree completely.
I cannot see this working, in real life. But someone built it.
They really did.
No, that “50 lane traffic jam” is at the the TOLL BOOTH deliberately created BY bureaucrats to make money for the government ... the traffic is backed up as the toll booth patrons try to merge again into a simple 4 lane bottleneck highway about 1/2mile down the highway PASt the toll booths.
It’s actually a type of surface-rail, not a bus (travels on rails).
It’s, at the very least, an innovative concept. Consider the alternatives, for public transit on congested routes:
* regular buses: get stuck in traffic like everyone else
* dedicated bus lanes: removes lanes for use by other vehicles — may make things worse.
* light rail on surface: also removes lanes for other vehicles.
* Subway: cost — especially up-front capital cost.
* Monorail: minimal road space required, compared to surface rail. See the monorail episode of The Simpsons for more.
* Elevated roadway: Cost. Unsightly.
It can’t compete with ordinary buses for route flexibility. However, the routes could be at least as flexible as subway, surface rail, or monorail allows. If it went on a continuous loop, with curves rather than turns, it could work.
The idea is good.
But, like the trolley cars riding tracks in city streets between 1890 and 1920, there MANY THOUSANDS OF NEW accidents as the old track-bound trollies run over people, cars, trucks, horses (then) and mis-parked/jammed/turning cars and trucks. Equally, often, the cars and trucks run into the track-bound trolley. Which THEN cannot move ANYWHERE until the accident gets cleared. So now the entire street is blocked until the cops clear the accident.
Geez I hate those 50 lane toll booths. Which one is the exact change lane?
Looks like a knockoff of some of these things:
https://www.google.com/search?q=self+propelled+sprayers&client=opera&hs=Emt&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAxJ6YsLDOAhXp54MKHQU1CCAQ7AkITQ&biw=1370&bih=766
That toll-booth picture: best advertisement for E-Z Pass ever!
As for the bus, they’ll need to build guard rails along the route, and have the buses’ edges run just outside them. That should cut down on accidents caused by panicked drivers underneath the buses suddenly swerving.
What I want to know is, how will the bus get under utility wires or traffic-light mast spans?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.