Claims that China's Transit Elevated Bus Is a Scam
en.yibada.com
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Much better link: http://shanghaiist.com/2016/08/08/straddling_bus_locked_up.p... / https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12251379
(2) I find it ironic that the state-sponsored Chinese media is warning people against it. Given their past history, I actually don't know if that is sincerely a warning to people not to invest in a scam, or yet another example of propoganda.
(3) And then, it isn't as if the Chinese business community have a high standard of ethics. I get that there are probably a lot of great companies in China, but generally, the culture tends to skew towards cutting corners and corruption.
I guess the question is, if we pretend the technology, on it's own merit, was attempted within say, the US, would it work out? There would be a lot of political push-back against adopting it, but I don't know if that necessarily means the technology itself is a bad idea.
Where in the US? Most cities have power/phone/cable wires crossing the street somewhat randomly. There are also bridges that this won't get under. There are also stoplight and signs that hang over the roadway.
You can probably find a newish quiet residential neighborhood in the suburbs without all that in the way. However traffic is generally not a concern in those places. Thus I'm going to say even if technically it works perfectly, and turns out to be a great idea with no other concerns it will be many years before cities redesign themselves enough to make it work.
I can see a city like Las Vagas putting something like this on the strip as a publicity stunt. It would only go a couple miles, but it is feasible to rebuild a few miles of street to make it work. Assuming the above, it is feasible. You time the cross streets signals so that there is no cross traffic. Cars can drive under it no problem. There needs to be something to ensure cars don't turn into a tire, but seems solvable. If we just assuming running one back and forth down the street it is easy. If you want to run more than one you need to handle turn around with no traffic - this thing will need more room to turn, but since it is a dedicated line you can close a low traffic intersection for that (or since it is on rails just go up and over - maybe around a block... lots of options)
Of course once you look at the above you say "it can be done, but I think there are more conventional alternatives that make more sense." I think the for anything where this makes sense a monorail is better: known technology, and since it isn't at ground level there is no safety issues.
By the way, the bus won't work because it is higher than cars only, no trucks, no regular buses etc. I think modifying current infrastructure to pass only cars under specified height (and raising height for this over-bus) will be more expensive than the bus itself. Easier to just build a second level road.
Lol wut? Easier to build a second level road than put a few gantries in to prevent vehicles over a particular height enter a road? I think not.
This bus isn't going to be used as a general bus that drives around the city. It's more likely going to be used down a single stretch of road, acting as a shuttle from one end to the other so people don't get stuck in traffic on it.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12250494
http://jalopnik.com/is-the-chinese-traffic-straddling-bus-a-...