China's worst idea yet?

The jury is still out whether the ‘Straddle Bus’ is
China’s best or worst transport idea yet.

THE Chinese companies which in June promised to test the Land Airbus in August have delivered, with a few excited passengers even able to take a pioneering ride high above the traffic jams.

Back in May, Shenzen Hashi Future Parking Equipment and Transit Explore Bus Technologies (TEBtech) showed a scale model of their Land Airbus at the the Beijing International High-Tech Expo.

A month later engineer Song Youzhou said a full scale version of the bus would be tested in August. His dream to do so dates back seven years, and he would have seen the first American version of the ideal in 1967.

Song described his transport system as working like a subway, but instead of sending trains in tunnels under the cars, his system would put the train high over the traffic, sharing the same roads.

Youzhou’s new take on the old idea was to build a bus that is almost five metres high to straddle gridlocked lanes and deliver up to 300 passengers per train, travelling at about 60 km/h between the elevated passenger platforms.

Good or bad, the bus is built. Wither next? one wonders.

Practical difficulties — such as articulating the almost eight-metre wide behemoth so that it could bend around even gentle corners — have delayed the dream and gave naysayers lots to blog about. But last week, reported the China Xinhua News, the Land Airbus had completed its first tests in the port city of Qinhuangdao. Shangaiist reported the first test-run saw one straddle bus riding in a straight line over two Chinese built VW sedans on a controlled track that was only 300 metres long.

TEBtech told the media they were testing the braking system and power usage of the bus, and a few passengers were also allowed to board. 

The naysayers, who pointed out that the promotional video had the straddle bus flex around corners like it was made out of rubber and not metal, have been silenced, for now. 

But it is still not clear how Chinese cities with their crooked streets will accommodate the straddle bus, which needs wide highways with very gentle curves to move anywhere. Maybe China will just build another few mega cities to suit the Straddle Bus?