A
new take on mass transit may be headed to China as early as the end of
the year: A so-called "Land Airbus" system that looks like an overgrown
monorail as it motors over existing lanes of traffic.
The big catch: cars can actually drive under the Land Airbus.
For
now, the concept only exists as a scale model created by the Shenzen
Hashi Future Parking Equipment and as an animated video by Transit
Explore Bus. Both Chinese firms intend to work together to deploy a
full-size trial version on urban Chinese roads by August of this year,
they said this week at an expo in Beijing. The first unit is currently
under construction in China.
The Land Airbus moves at about 37 mph, but its real utility lies in
its human-carrying capacity: As many as 1,400 people can be squeezed
onto a single bus at once. It's also said to be cheaper than trains or
tram systems.
In
addition, compared to a rail system or a subway, the Land Airbus can be
built and deployed much quicker in order to remedy immediate traffic
concerns. The Airbus travels on rails mounted to existing roadways and
is high enough off the ground for cars to fit under it, but large buses
and trucks would be a no-go. However, big trucks are banned from the
urban areas of many Chinese cities anyway.
The Land Airbus is meant more for local transit than Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk's proposed Hyperloop system being
developed in the United States. The Land Airbus would also require
significantly less investment in infrastructure, although it doesn't
move nearly as quickly.
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