The surreal idea of an elevated bus which can carry 1200 passengers at once, floating above the congested streets of China will soon be a reality. This huge street-straddling bus had a successful trail run this week onTuesday, Aug. 2 in Qinhuangdao, a seaside city in northern China.
In May, the bus was first presented at an expo in Beijing. Transit Elevated Bus, the makers of this innovative vehicle declared the trial run a success. However, since the run was under controlled traffic conditions, was hardly realistic, considering the unpredictable conditions of traffic in Chinese cities.
Song Youzhou who designed the straddling bus, said that he wanted to show people that this is entirely possible and that the bus can be up and running, The New York Times reported.
The makers wanted to inspect and test the vehicle for a range of functions such as ignition, braking and other processes and they claimed there was no problem and run was a success.
A full trial run is expected to take place in a city in central China sometime in the middle of next year.
The floating bus, which is 26 feet wide and 72 feet long and 72 feet long aims to curb the traffic woes of China's cities. The prototype has room for cars underneath it between the wheels - 6 feet high tunnel. Commuters will be able to float above two lanes of traffic, whisked on rails from one specially built elevated stop to another.
The invention of the Transit Elevated Bus is seen as a revolution for the eco-friendly public transportation, the makers, TEB Technology,claims on its website. "No more traffic jams," with a certain optimism it says.
But some fear the bus is likely to create even more problems than provide solutions.
After the test run on Tuesday, China's internet filled with questions pertaining to the bus's ability to negotiate turns and fit big vehicles like trucks which are too large to fit under the bus.
The elevated bus might still be a fantasy, Beijing Daily reported in June.It called the bus "very impractical." It questioned the giant bus's ability to use the bridges and overpasses in the capital.
But the makers are adamant that their "futuristic" bus has been designed taking into consideration a multitude of factors like the one mentioned above. Song said that even making turns at broad intersections would not be a problem and the cars underneath would halt while the bus turn.
There would be traffic lights underneath the bus which will work in tandem with the traffic lights on the road to notify the cars underneath, Song added.
But the idea of a bus floating above the traffic seems unsettling to most of the Chinese people. Zhang Jianwu, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University's the Institute of Automotive Engineering said the bus might create some psychological pressure for motorists, China Youth Daily reported last month.