China Built A Massive Bus That Actually Straddles Traffic, But Will It Work?

Source: YouTube

While sitting in traffic that makes a highway look like a parking lot, the thought surely crosses many drivers’ minds that it’d be lovely to fly right over the congestion.

Well, China has taken that daydream and turned it into reality by building a nearly five-meter-high Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) that actually straddles traffic to get passengers to their destinations in no time at all. Electrically powered, the bus can carry as many as 300 commuters comfortably in its 72-foot-long, 25-foot-wide cabin, BBC News reports.

Earlier this week, engineers ran a trial run along a 300-meter-long track laid on the sides of an ordinary road in Qinhuangdao, a northeastern Chinese city. Traveling at a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour, TEBs won’t necessarily be the fastest mode of transportation but they will “save lots of road space,” said the project’s chief engineer, Song Youzhou, in an interview with state-run media group Xinhua. Fellow engineer Bai Zhiming told news station CCTV, “The TEB has the same functions as the subway, while its cost of construction is less than one fifth of the subway.”

According to BBC News, one TEB can replace as many as 40 regular buses, and with the option of linking several TEBs together, the time and energy saving possibilities are endless. Check out the video above to see the first life-size TEB prototype in action.