China Builds 'Elevated Bus' That Drives Over Cars (washingtonpost.com) 176
An anonymous reader writes: Remember that futuristic bus design from China a few months ago? China has actually built it and is testing it on the streets. The Transit Elevated Bus or TEB-1, as it's called, stands nearly 16 feet tall and straddles two lanes of traffic, allowing cars to pass under it. The hope is for TEB-1 to someday alleviate major traffic in China and other crowded countries. Washington Post reports: "The Transit Elevated Bus piloted in China's Hebei province rolls along a designated track, making it similar in some ways to a commuter train or tram -- the key difference, of course, being that it runs on top of the existing roadway without the need to construct a separate overpass. Images distributed by Chinese media show a spacious passenger compartment -- measuring 72 feet long by 26 feet wide -- capable of holding up to 300 riders. Surprisingly, there are not very many seats. That would probably have to change should an American model ever come to fruition." The concept of the elevated bus first arrived in 2010, where the company claimed it would "cost 10% of a subway system and use 30% less energy than current bus technologies."
How do you take a turn? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How do you take a turn? (Score:5, Insightful)
Lol. If you ever go to China then you will understand that written road rules don't really seem to matter. There is a definite attitude of biggest gets right of way. If you get hit by this thing you are going to be the one in trouble.
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Lol. If you ever go to China then you will understand that written road rules don't really seem to matter. There is a definite attitude of biggest gets right of way. If you get hit by this thing you are going to be the one in trouble.
This. A million times this. I've been to China. It's one scary place to be in an automobile. A few years ago I was in Shanghai and I took a taxi from my hotel to the airport. It was a fairly long drive, maybe 40 minutes, and a good chunk of it was on a 6 lane (each direction) highway. It was maybe around 10:30 AM and since the airport is, like in many major cities, actually fairly far away from the city center and kind of in the middle of nowhere, there weren't a lot of cars on the road at the time.
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I took a taxi from my hotel to the airport. It was a fairly long drive, maybe 40 minutes, and a good chunk of it was on a 6 lane (each direction) highway. It was maybe around 10:30 AM and since the airport is, like in many major cities, actually fairly far away from the city center and kind of in the middle of nowhere, there weren't a lot of cars on the road at the time. My taxi driver was fine but the other drivers were most assuredly not. I saw people talking on mobile phones and some woman putting on makeup and many cars swerving back and forth between multiple lanes without a care in the world. My driver couldn't speak English and I can't speak Mandarin, but it was obvious that he wasn't happy with what he was seeing either.
Sounds exactly like my last trip to Dallas.
Re: How do you take a turn? (Score:2)
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I've lived in NY, Nevada (and drove to CA a number of times), GA, FL, have driven across country a number of times, and generally put around 20k miles on my car every year.... trust me, people, drivers are terrible everywhere. They don't follow the rules/mores of the road, slower traffic doesn't keep right, everywhere you go there might be the occasional driver that lets someone signaling in without causing a problem, but you're just as likely (maybe more) to get a douchebag who closes up the gap; people
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Re:How do you take a turn? (Score:5, Funny)
What if you have a dozen crates of chickens on top of your car?
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You don't see that inside the centre of major cities where these are likely to be used.
That said Beijing roads are really really weird. They have these massive roads right through the middle but no traffic. First time I went there my wife asked if we had missed the zombie apocalypse because the place felt empty. Their metro on the other hand was packed like no where else I have seen.
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They are building in the infrastructure to handle the traffic they expect in the future. Forward planning and all that. It's something that the west can't really do because the economic/commercial benefit of doing it today isn't great enough, but China thinks about the longer term.
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It's something that the west can't really do because the economic/commercial benefit of doing it today isn't great enough
The main holdup in the US is something called "private property". Yes, you can take it by eminent domain, but that's really difficult and always involves long legal battles.
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That's kind of what I was getting at, although I'd point out that Japan has private property and a democratic government and still managed to build infrastructure better than most western countries.
Re: How do you take a turn? (Score:2)
Which is it, China or Japan?
Then you said:
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What I mean is that China can plan because it's not a democracy, but having said that there are other democracies (Japan) that do far better than the west so merely being a democracy and having private ownership isn't the only factor.
And by the way, China has private ownership too.
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It's something that the west can't really do because the economic/commercial benefit of doing it today isn't great enough, but China thinks about the longer term.
What? Surely you jest. China is operating like any corporation and focusing on the short term. They are polluting the fuck out of the planet which will have long-term consequences. They are building infrastructure whose future use depends on endless growth, which is unsustainable — hence why so much of it is lying unused. Ask Spain how that's worked out for them. None of this separates them from most other nations, but they are most certainly not planning for the future.
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Partially this. But also they have banned cars on alternate days in beijing dependent on your number plate. Even numbers 1 day odds the next. This has meant everyone has had to plan around not being able to drive in 2 or 3 days a week.
The only exception to this is if your vehicle is electric. It was amazing to see hundreds and hundreds of electric scooters with chargers everywhere.
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I was disappointed that there wasn't water
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Fair enough. I was in beijing in march as well as in Guanzhou for work for 3 weeks. In the main business districts I only saw vehicles and pedestrians. Outside of the centre though and it because a mix of anything. I particularly like the little trike things with the ute back.
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Re:How do you take a turn? (Score:4, Informative)
It's a lot like electric light rail. You don't turn when one is in the way.
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My questions is, what happen to any overhead cables/lamps/whatever? There are still lots of those around.
Cool idea though
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My main worry about the concept is in the response it might provoke from drivers. I know that here in the UK, we have regulations regarding the proximity of busy roads to the ends of runways, not particularly because of any risk of aircraft hitting road vehicles, but rather primarily because of the "flinch" reaction that the sudden appearance of a very low aircraft overhead might produce in drivers.
Humans tend to reach to the sudden appearance of large things immediately above their heads. Even a momentary
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And let's not forget pickup trucks, SUVs, vans, trucks, and tall people on bikes....
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I imagine there would have to changes to traffic law to fix that.
Mount red traffic lights on the undercarriage, and on longarms extending out a car-length ahead of the vehicle, so people know they are not allowed to turn while the vehicle is moving over them.
Also, speed limit the busses to 5 to 10mph.
Re: How do you take a turn? (Score:2)
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Terminology (Score:1)
Why is everyone calling this thing a "bus"? It runs on *tracks* built into the sides of the road. Isn't that more like a train or a streetcar or something?
Re:Terminology (Score:5, Informative)
In Europe, rail-bound busses are very common, they are actually called railbusses [wikipedia.org].
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I'd say if it has one degree of freedom, it's a train.
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Well yes you are indeed technically correct./quote.
The best kind of correct.
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"The "Micheline" [wikipedia.org] was a kind of bus with specially-designed rubber-tyres running on rails in the 30's in France (image [wikipedia.org])."
Not only there, in many countries there are rubber-tyred Metros, even in the US, like f.ex: Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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At 2m clearance below, I guess they are trying to make sure it can get under existing bridges. Speeds up deployment time, but a pretty big compromise for now. Another 50cm would really make it less scary though...
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Odd, around here the leftists prefer "train" despite it being less cost efficient and less flexible than buses.
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Odd, around here the leftists prefer "train" despite it being less cost efficient and less flexible than buses.
Well around here (London) that's a non partisan view. There simply is not the road capacity to move everyone to everywhere they want to go. You can preach party politics all you like but they get ignored pretty fast when you're stuck on Tooting bloody high street at arf four in the bloody afternoon innit.
Re: Terminology (Score:2)
...at arf four in the bloody afternoon innit.
This may come as a bit of a surprise but we expect even the English to speak English...
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u wot m8? you must be avin a larf innit. Don't get yer knickers in a twist.
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Odd, around here the leftists prefer "train" despite it being less cost efficient and less flexible than buses.
Buses shit all over traffic patterns for everyone else. Rails don't. Tires shed rubber all over the city for everyone to breathe, and to wash into waterways when it goes down the storm drains. Rails don't. A little rapidly-oxidized steel is no big deal, and there's a lot less loss of mass there to begin with. Buses work where you have hills and can't build on contour so they have purposes but rail is superior any place it's feasible. You can use rail without trains, or you can have short trains, but rail is
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Trains can hold many more people, electric buses don't spew diesel fumes, and, around here, the trains take up space that would have been roads otherwise.
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Or they could have been a bus only lane for the same capacity at a fraction of the cost, with the added benefit of being able to be used for cars in the event of an accident or other emergency.
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Buses are a contentious political hot topic. Who knew?
We've seen this before... (Score:2)
Remember that futuristic bus design from China a few months ago?
Wasn't this bus in one of the Harry Potter movies?
What can go wrong (Score:2)
What can go wrong and just wait for a multi way upper and lower traffic light to go in to blanking red mode
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I was thinking more like getting run over by this thing. How often are cars exactly in their lane? Or bike riders/pedestrians.
The idea that running rails down roads is better than elevated trains is interesting. Maybe it is cheaper - but sure seems dangerous.
This thing still has to wait in traffic. If a car is trying to change lanes and is stuck waiting to merge the train can't pass over them. I seriously wonder whether this thing will be better in practice.
Re: What can go wrong (Score:2)
Not surprised (Score:1)
I'm just surprised China isn't charging the victims for extra wear on their tires.
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My bad, I'm not really capable of imagining scenarios where human life doesn't matter.
Dirty American model (Score:1)
"... should an American model ever come to fruition."
Given the unhygienic condition of most of American public transport(with Americans defecating and urinating all over them), it is better this does not come to USA.
Always surprised that Americans here mention the unhygienic nature of Indian public places, whenever India come up here, but they always forget American public transport and habits of American citizens, are no better.
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Will get voted down for pointing out facts
Re: Dirty American model (Score:2)
Given the unhygienic condition of most of American public transport (with Americans defecating and urinating all over them)
Replace "America" with "China" and your spot-on. Only one flaw in your propaganda; not bad for a shill.
Fit over a Semi? Or under an overpass? (Score:3)
Can it make a 90 degree turn?
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No to the first question. Since it follows a set track, I imagine they lay track wherever it can go. To the third question, the answer is yes, if the track makes a right-hand turn. One of the videos showed that, though it's not clear to me the mechanism that makes the bus flexible like a tram, especially being so wide.
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I don't see how this saves money (Score:4, Interesting)
You have the expense of laying track, plus the expense of producing a very small number of these extremely specialized vehicles. Why not lay track and run a mass-produced light rail train or streetcar on it instead?
Re:I don't see how this saves money (Score:4, Interesting)
You have the expense of laying track, plus the expense of producing a very small number of these extremely specialized vehicles.
There is a lot to criticize in this project, but the pace in which China can take crazy ideas, add manufacturing innovation, and put them into the real world is pretty spectacular.
Re:I don't see how this saves money (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a lot to criticize in this project, but the pace in which China can take crazy ideas, add manufacturing innovation, and put them into the real world is pretty spectacular.
It's definitely a crazy idea, but not necessarily more crazy than the hyperloop. China is to be applauded for trying a crazy new idea, which hopefully will allow them to observe and improve any significant deficiencies.
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Because this is far more space efficient as it runs over existing infastructure rather than replacing or taking up even more space.
Your slashdot signature says it all here btw :).
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Because this is far more space efficient as it runs over existing infastructure rather than replacing or taking up even more space.
Your slashdot signature says it all here btw :).
Actually in this instance I had read this article and looked at the photo. I'm not convinced the support structure (x2) ends up being all that much narrower than a light rail train or streetcar.
This behemoth doesn't hover - the support structures still require tracks, which either means additional pavement gets laid or else existing pavement gets repurposed. This is the same as with a streetcar or light rail - they can share right of way with existing roads.
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You can't be serious.
Anyone whose seen rail in action knows it takes multiple lanes worth of traffic space to operate safely. Sure, you still need safe boarding areas and room for the tracks for this but the bulk of the machine operates above existing roadways. The passengers are carried above roadways thus all of the cabin space (the bulk of a mass transit machine) is absorbed by elevated space that doesnt impact the surrounding areas.
I'm not saying the concept is flawless but on this point I don't underst
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You have the expense of laying track, plus the expense of producing a very small number of these extremely specialized vehicles. Why not lay track and run a mass-produced light rail train or streetcar on it instead?
Lack of space, number of crossings required. This looks like an attempt to make a cheap subway, going above instead of going below. You will have all the annoyances of a tram line though, one car stuck in the tracks, an accident or such and you're blocked. On the other hand, if they jam full that bus like the Japanese do it could transport a helluva lot of people.
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one car stuck in the tracks, an accident or such and you're blocked
But most countries don't screw around with stalled cars and accidents like we do. They don't have half the police force standing around the site for half a day with their hands in their pockets. They get the people (or bodies) out, bring up a front loader [gorge.net.au] or other large truck, push the disabled car into the ditch or up on a curb and get traffic moving again.
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because it is going to be blocked by traffic? This is an alternative to elevated trains or subways... both much more expensive.
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You have the expense of laying track, plus the expense of producing a very small number of these extremely specialized vehicles. Why not lay track and run a mass-produced light rail train or streetcar on it instead?
The Chinese government does not operate on simple premises of saving money. They are willing (and are capable) to run projects on the red for decades if they believe it is necessary to accommodate change or boost economic output. Just look at all the infrastructure projects connecting Shenzhen, Guangzhou and all the other metropolis in the Pearl River Delta (I don't remember where I saw it that the infrastructure will run in red for two decades.)
And how about the planned Jing-Jin-Ji megapolis (and I know
Street Car (Score:2)
Kapew (Score:3)
Re:Kapew (Score:5, Insightful)
They're right here INSISTING that well, okay okay, it got built, but IT'LL NEVER WORK! Because turns and trucks and bridges and all KINDS of DUH OBVIOUS real-world stuff (not that they've ever seen it, holed up their moms' basements) that those stupid "engineers" CLEARLY haven't thought about before pissing away MILLIONS on this thing!
In other words, a normal day on Slashdot. :)
Re:Kapew (Score:4, Funny)
To be fair, they're used to dealing with American projects.
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You don't understand. The average slashdotter can envisage things in 1 min's consideration that 100s of Chinese engineers will simply not think of in years of work.
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They're right here INSISTING that well, okay okay, it got built, but IT'LL NEVER WORK! Because turns and trucks and bridges and all KINDS of DUH OBVIOUS real-world stuff (not that they've ever seen it, holed up their moms' basements) that those stupid "engineers" CLEARLY haven't thought about before pissing away MILLIONS on this thing!
In other words, a normal day on Slashdot. :)
Honestly, all of those things *are* problems. But the problems won't get solved (or the whole thing shown to be a major debacle) without building it and playing around with it. This is v 0.9, give them some time to work out the kinks and see how the rest of the city interacts with it. Another problem I see is the fact that all seating is on the second floor, meaning the elderly and handicapped are going to have a harder time of it. But, again, they're not done, they're just getting started.
At least they
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Exactly, build a prototype and see if it works well enough to make demolishing bridges elsewhere worth it.
The stations are clearly elevated much as you would have with an overhead monorail, etc., in which case lifts/ramps are doable for access. Even though everyone's calling it a bus, I see this less as a replacement for a regular city bus with stops every block, more for a metro system with a relatively limited number of stops.
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This will get stuck behind trucks and vans.
Hell, I've seen pickup trucks bigger than this Chinese bus in Texas.
Just me? (Score:1)
TEB still needs separate rails (Score:1)
Dumb idea (Score:2)
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You don't even a big truck full of explosive among a shitload of traffic. The Oklahoma City Bombing was carried out with a parked Ryder rental truck, parked right in front of a building. Go google the pictures.
Anything related to transportation or public spaces can be susceptible to car bombing. If we let that concern stop us from buil
For nay sayers (Score:2)
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I like how in the CGI video, the whole thing bends (including the cars!) like a big hot dog instead of the individual "cars" flexing at the joints only.
Solution looking for a problem. (Score:2)
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I would think cost.
It would seem to me that a rail on either side of a road way would be a lot cheaper than building a whole elevated deck.
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300 people? (Score:2)
Only 300 people? Come now. I've spent a lot of time in China. They fit over 300 people on a normal bus with 1/4 the space of this thing.
sure is a big bus! (Score:2)
if it's not nuclear powered then i'm not interested!
http://gb.imdb.com/title/tt007... [imdb.com]
snake
5 dollar footlongs (Score:2)
"cost 10% of a subway system and use 30% less energy than current bus technologies."
OK I get that it costs less way less than a subway system. However that is only because they are exorbitantly expensive, usually because they are being built under existing development. 30% less energy than current bus technology? Not so sure of that, given construction costs, repairs/downtime, infrastructure costs, and for very low values of what "current bus technology" is. I'll throw out my own statistic, I bet it will al
Re:Dupe from 6 years ago (Score:4, Informative)
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Hm, maybe they should have linked to that in the summary! /s
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Chinese Elevated Bus versus The Grave Digger, this weekend only at the fairgrounds and some damn arena somewhere. Monster Truck Madness! Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!
Re:First Post ! (Score:5, Insightful)
I would think it would wreak disaster in the wrong hands
It sure would. That's what's unique to this vehicle. A train in the wrong hands, a cargo ship or oil tanker, an A380 airplane - you could never cause harm with these vehicles no matter what you did with them. But this little bus on rails - fucking lethal. They better keep a lid on this shit.
Re:Does it drive under bridges? (Score:5, Funny)
Once.
Re:Seems like (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly the kind of government pork projects that we undertake in the USA. Except it would take 11 years and tens if billions of taxpayer dollars to get the pilot off the ground, which would fail miserably, then be abandoned.
China today is like the U.S. in the 40s to 70s. And I mean that in a good way.
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At least, in China, they don't falsely accuse people with Communism :D
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In china they falsely accuse people of capitalism. :D
If a businessman become es to rich and doesn't show proper party support he vanishes. In the last year 2 or 3 Chinese billionaires vanished without a trace and all their assets confidently going back to the government.
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China today is like the U.S. in the 40s to 70s. And I mean that in a good way.
They wear fedoras with bell bottoms?
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That's so not true, it would fail miserably and continue running anyway.
Have you been to China? (Score:3)
It's also a solved problem in many American cities, but whatever. Enjoy your Freedom(TM).