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China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

engadget.com

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Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

#31

Post by jacquesm »

MC27 wrote: post #28
jacquesm wrote: post #22

Neat idea but it violates the 'kiss' principle on several points. I'll believe it when I see it, in spite of the fact that 'building will commence soon'.

It is simple in a way. It's an alternative to building another deck on top of the road for light rail to run along. Probably cheaper and less devastating to communities that it runs though.

Not really, building another deck on a road (assuming that's the right solution for a given topology) is well understood technology wise. Adding a completely new, untried infrastructure for a vehicle class that nobody has any experience with will add unique challenges that may be difficult or even impossible to overcome. In practice, for instance, how would you deal with it if one of these monsters broke down? What will you do when a car has an accident with another car underneath one of them in such a way that you can't move it without further risk to the occupants?

How will the drivers deal with a vehicle that is in their perpetual dead angle ? How will the driver of the 'urban train' see the vehicles he's moving over and make sure that none of them get crushed at intersections in case traffic somehow got blocked?

China has some history of 'grand announcements' which are then not followed up on, and a few that they did follow up on that failed fairly spectacularly. We'll see if this one works out, I'm sceptical but who knows, maybe it will work.

The three gorges dam is also still holding up in spite of lots of nay saying so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

#32

Post by notahacker »

mortenjorck wrote: post #19
stcredzero wrote: post #3

Are those really busses or are they trains? This scheme looks cool, until I try to picture what happens during turns. Remember that "large vehicles make large turns." One way to think about it is that "turn radius" of the from wheels is much larger than for the back wheels. It's more complicated than that, but it's the gist. EDIT: Watching the video now. The "bus" is divided into many sections which need to "snake" a…

This effectively becomes an elevated train with a vastly less expensive infrastructure buildout. Genius.

Not sure the infrastructure is likely to be that much more inexpensive - the requirements for smooth gradients and strong foundations are going to be more than your average rail line, and they'll need to pay incredible care and attention paid to intersections.

That's even before they've taken into account the costs of building and testing enormous custom-designed vehicles rather than using tried and tested technology.

Alternatively, they could have sacrificed slightly more road space for a conventional light rail system, or even a bus lane and all the flexibility that comes with regular buses....

Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

#33

Post by stuaxo »

stcredzero wrote: post #3

Are those really busses or are they trains? This scheme looks cool, until I try to picture what happens during turns. Remember that "large vehicles make large turns." One way to think about it is that "turn radius" of the from wheels is much larger than for the back wheels. It's more complicated than that, but it's the gist. EDIT: Watching the video now. The "bus" is divided into many sections which need to "snake" a…

Their Trams

Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

#35

Post by thatfatcat »

cabalamat wrote: post #30
thatfatcat wrote: post #25

I don't think that it's such a great idea. ACCESIBILITY: In crowded cities you need people to get in and out of the bus quickly, meaning lots of doors and very few steps. Also let's not forget wheel chairs. How could an elderly person climb all those steps to get out of the bus? How about someone with a baby in a buggy? INFRASTRUCTURE: Yes, it's cheaper than a subway, but that's the only advantage. When this bus make…

Why not just build the light rail over the highway, like they do in Bangkok?

It's more expensive than on street level. But they could build the rail over the highway in very crowded areas, keep it at street level in areas where land is cheaper, and even go underground for short distances (ie: to pass crowded intersections). It seems way more flexible to me than this bus idea.

Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

#36

Post by GFischer »

cabalamat wrote: post #30
thatfatcat wrote: post #25

I don't think that it's such a great idea. ACCESIBILITY: In crowded cities you need people to get in and out of the bus quickly, meaning lots of doors and very few steps. Also let's not forget wheel chairs. How could an elderly person climb all those steps to get out of the bus? How about someone with a baby in a buggy? INFRASTRUCTURE: Yes, it's cheaper than a subway, but that's the only advantage. When this bus make…

Why not just build the light rail over the highway, like they do in Bangkok?

I hadn't read about the rail in Bangkok, looks cool:

http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/bangkok/

Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

#40

Post by byw »

stcredzero wrote: post #3

Are those really busses or are they trains? This scheme looks cool, until I try to picture what happens during turns. Remember that "large vehicles make large turns." One way to think about it is that "turn radius" of the from wheels is much larger than for the back wheels. It's more complicated than that, but it's the gist. EDIT: Watching the video now. The "bus" is divided into many sections which need to "snake" a…

>Are those really busses or are they trains?

According to the video it's a hybrid. When there's no rails you need to paint special lanes, and the lane-assist system will keep the vehicle on track. From the operator's point of view it's driven like a train.

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