Chinese elevated bus, now a reality

China is densely populated and has a lot of cars. Traffic and pollution are major issues there as well. But to keep up with the growing traffic situation in the country, the Chinese have come up with an innovative solution.

What is the solution?

They have come up with a Transit Elevated Bus (TEB). What is that you may ask? It is, like the name suggests an elevated bus. It is high enough so that other vehicles can pass from below. It is about 72 feet long and 25 feet wide, which means it can accommodate around 300 passengers. It is capable of travelling upto a max speed of 64 kmph. Unlike before where we only saw renders of this system, this was a live road test to see exactly how it works. It was tested in Qinhuangdao, which is in China’s north Hebei Province.

Since this public bus is located far above other vehicles on the road, it allows them to pass from below, thus helping to ease traffic congestion. The test was conducted by Tebtech to evaluate the braking system, power consumption and also to see the drag produced.

Here is a video below of how the system works.

Since normal buses occupy a lot of space on the road and cause jams due to their frequent stoppage or sometimes even have special lanes allocated for them, this system kills that altogether. You can easily drive below the bus and not have to be bothered by what’s going on above, which is a great thing.

Relevance for us?

According to a report by Xinhuanet, other countries like Brazil, France, Indonesia and India are also interested in this project. If this does make it to India, it will really help to reduce congestion.

Source: Link