Treehugger‘s Lloyd Alter reports that the first prototype of the Transit Elevated Bus has has been released on schedule:
Originally conceived by American architect Lester Walker 45 years ago, there is in fact some logic to it; the right-of-way already exists, and instead of having a bus stuck in traffic, the straddling bus can fly right over it. When we showed a model of it earlier this year, we noted that the designer promised a working one by August.
And here we are in August, and there they are, running a real full size straddle bus down a thousand foot test track. It is officially known as a Transit Elevated Bus (TEB), will consist of four cars each being about 22 meters [72′] long, 7.8 meters wide [25.6′] and 4.8 meters [15.74′] high, and can hold 1200 people.
The video is fun to watch and spawns some thoughts, such as what happens when an unaware motorist is overtaken by the elevated bus and panics? OK, no big surprise: he crashes and possibly damages a vehicle containing up to 1200 people. Then there’s the tracks themselves, which may be optional, which will need installation and will result in death and dismemberment if someone gets in the way – which is also true of trains.
And how vulnerable will it be to weather? The original proposal claims solar and electrical power will be used – will it be batteries?
Here’s a link to an article in 2010 in ChinaHush that covers the features of the proposed new transit style:
There are two parts in building the straddling bus. One is remodeling the road, the other is building station platforms. Two ways to remodel the road: we can go with laying rails on both sides of car lane, which save 30% energy; or we can paint two white lines on both sides and use auto-pilot technology in the bus, which will follow the lines and run stable. …
Straddling bus is completely powered by municipal electricity and solar energy system. In terms of electricity, the setting is called relay direct current electrification. The bus itself is electrical conductor, two rails built on top to allow the charging post to run along with the bus, the next charging post will be on the rails before the earlier one leaves, that is why we call it relay charging. It is new invention, not available yet in other places.
