Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

China to build giant buses that cars can drive under

engadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–59 of 59 posts

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

#51

Post by jerf »

ximeng wrote: post #44
jerf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This strikes as feasible, assuming total computerized control of all the vehicles, both the "bus" and the cars trying to drive under it. Humans will be smashing the sides of that bus with frightful regularity, though. And by the time you have that, there are probably way better ways to deal with traffic than this sort of crazy contraption. Even if this ever becomes practical I have a hard time seeing it ever being th…

He says that there are radar detectors that will set off alarms and light signals and automatically call the police if cars get too close to the edge. It's designed to seat 1200 people apparently. And construction meant to start by year end so I suppose we'll know soon enough if it really works.

"automatically call the police if cars get too close to the edge"

When fractions of a second matter, the police are only minutes away...? Not sure what calling the police will do.

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

#52

Post by antipaganda »

gaoshan wrote: post #21

Given the nature of traffic in China the one angle they don't show in the video is the one that matters most... what happens when vehicles in front of the bus straddle the lane, blocking it? They line up neatly coming from the back because they physically have to but anyone who has seen the traffic in China knows that cars will not get out of the way or obey the lane markers and are quite likely to abruptly (even at…

The same way we solve all of life's problems: Giant spinning blades!

Or, y-know, fines. And a bored cop sitting on the top of the giant bus with a crane.

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

#53

Post by hugh3 »

stcredzero wrote: post #20
adolph wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on my own observations I take it as a given that people regularly break traffic rules. Car-car smashes happen with frightful regularity too. It isn't a Houston-only issue. The reasons for this may be carelessness or disregard--reasons don't really matter. The behavior exists and rules/signs don't appear to mitigate very successfully (especially strange signs and irregular rules you don't see anywhere else). Car…

Having lived in Houston for 7 years, I'd say we have a much bigger problem with the car drivers not being "a good street-citizen." I wouldn't say it's Houston only, but there is a lot of it here. There's a lot of just plain pinhead disregard for physics and common sense here.

I've never been to Houston, but I've been to a lot of US cities, and I've been to China. I find it hard to imagine that the drivers in Houston are worse than the drivers in China.

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

#54

Post by hugh3 »

CO-OP wrote: post #49
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…

I guess it is a stretch, but I love this type of thinking. For one, if they could make it work then it would be a fantastic use of space, which is your primary concern for public transport in heavily urbanised areas. It is important to be realistic, but I also think that this type of thinking is notably absent from U.S. society. The thing that defines Chinese innovation for me is that it is based almost exclusively o…

For one, if they could make it work then it would be a fantastic use of space, which is your primary concern for public transport in heavily urbanised areas.

Is it really a good use of space?

For one thing, it means all your roads have to have some huge overhead clearance, which stops you from having overpasses et cetera.

Secondly, your road has to be made wider to put the bus there anyway, since you need space for the bus wheels. I doubt that the extra half-lanes you need for the wheels on either side of the road will be much less than one full bus lane.

Thirdly, every bus stop, which was previously just a metal post sticking out of the concrete, is now a complicated two-storey structure with stairs.

And that's before we get to the problem with turning the damn thing. You'll notice that the video depicts this bus on an insanely wide road; I have difficulty imagining it in an area where space really is at a premium, and in such a place I can't imagine it'd really take up less space than, say, a dedicated bus lane.

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

#55

Post by electromagnetic »

jerf wrote: post #51
ximeng wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He says that there are radar detectors that will set off alarms and light signals and automatically call the police if cars get too close to the edge. It's designed to seat 1200 people apparently. And construction meant to start by year end so I suppose we'll know soon enough if it really works.

"automatically call the police if cars get too close to the edge" When fractions of a second matter, the police are only minutes away...? Not sure what calling the police will do.

Because a person likely to set off the alarm is likely to be driving erratically, meaning a high probability of being DUI. Not everyone who sets off the alarms will crash, but there could be a high proportion of them who could easily harm someone else on the road.

Although by the looks of this system it is to be similar to a rail system, so I'm unsure if a side-on-side collision would even be capable of derailing this and causing serious harm.

Honestly, I'd be more worried about car-on-car crashes under these. I've seen how stupid people are driving under bridges. Despite no shape-change in the lane, people tend to drift away from any walls or support pillars as though they're afraid of hitting them, and I've seen it to the point of them cutting other drivers off.

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

#56

Post by simc »

hugh3 wrote: post #53
stcredzero wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Houston for 7 years, I'd say we have a much bigger problem with the car drivers not being "a good street-citizen." I wouldn't say it's Houston only, but there is a lot of it here. There's a lot of just plain pinhead disregard for physics and common sense here.

I've never been to Houston, but I've been to a lot of US cities, and I've been to China. I find it hard to imagine that the drivers in Houston are worse than the drivers in China.

Yeah, i've been to Beijing and people don't really seem to drive in lanes there. It would be really nice if they could get this to work, but it seems a bit utopian.

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

#57

Post by stcredzero »

hugh3 wrote: post #53
stcredzero wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Houston for 7 years, I'd say we have a much bigger problem with the car drivers not being "a good street-citizen." I wouldn't say it's Houston only, but there is a lot of it here. There's a lot of just plain pinhead disregard for physics and common sense here.

I've never been to Houston, but I've been to a lot of US cities, and I've been to China. I find it hard to imagine that the drivers in Houston are worse than the drivers in China.

I've heard first hand descriptions of driving in China, Italy, and Pakistan. In Pakistan, they have problems with people obeying stop lights!

This all just supports my point. If Houston drivers are pinheads that feel like they can cut-off a train that out-masses their vehicle by a factor of ten, what are Chinese drivers going to do about these massive tunnel-things going around when they have to drive underneath those things? It's begging for a lot of accidents, I think.

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

#58

Post by cake »

Create wrote: post #9

Think of it the other way around: cars don't drive underneath, but the bus drives above the stationary cars in the congested metropolis.

Took me a while to understand the concept because of this confusing title. I first thought those buses would move the cars around, like giant ferrys.

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

#59

Post by ximeng »

jerf wrote: post #51
ximeng wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He says that there are radar detectors that will set off alarms and light signals and automatically call the police if cars get too close to the edge. It's designed to seat 1200 people apparently. And construction meant to start by year end so I suppose we'll know soon enough if it really works.

"automatically call the police if cars get too close to the edge" When fractions of a second matter, the police are only minutes away...? Not sure what calling the police will do.

Stop them doing it again next time after they get fined.
Post reply on HN