China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
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Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#2this is so beyond cool...
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#3Are 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" around turns. This fact is fudged a lot -- many of the illustrations also show vehicles that do not have joints. Judging from the size of the bending joint sections, the minimum turn radius of the bendable trains looks fairly large.
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#4I wonder what their turning radius is? How will they turn around at the end of the route (I would imagine probably just switch back like a train).
Thanks China for another crazy but awesome idea.
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#5Are 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…
First thing that jumped out at me was cars under it trying to make a turn... I think both of those would work with bridges that the bus would use around turns (picture on/off ramps on highway)
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#6Are 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 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 the best use of money.
Segmenting the bus enough to give it a safe turning radius will make it seat very few people. (And note I don't say "decent" or "cost-effective", I said safe. If cars are driving underneath, the "bus" must also turn exactly like a car.)
Nifty concept, pretty pictures, much less practical than the only-barely-practical-if-that trains that don't have to stop that got posted four or five times a few months ago. But worth noodling around with; I don't fault the designers too hard, I fault the credulous media.
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#7It's a cool innovative idea. Now it's the execution, which probably won't be easy. Vehicle design and construction will be different from norm. Road design and regulation will be different. Kudos for coming up with the idea.
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#8Are 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 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…
Humans will be smashing the sides of that bus with frightful regularity, though.
I'm pretty sure Houston drivers would be. They can't even deal with light rail on city streets!
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#9Think of it the other way around: cars don't drive underneath, but the bus drives above the stationary cars in the congested metropolis.
Re: China to build giant buses that cars can drive under
#10Maybe one day, say the year 3000 cars will be driving under cars, under cars, under cars. We can only go up to the skies.