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new bus straddling the eater traffic in China is a security catastrophe in the making.
There are nearly 40 years, the American architects Craig Hodgetts and Lester Walker imagined New York elevation, big body bus that spans the ordinary traffic Radical idea has attracted some media attention, but was never a reality until either this month in China's Hebei province.
Sort anyway TEB Technology Development, based in Beijing took his high-BER transit bus on its first test drive in Qinhuangdao City on 2 August, reported Xinhua state news agency.
China conducts test drive for the transport high Homegrown bus that can carry 300 people.
It differs in several key ways of the idea devised by Hodgetts and Walker, who imagined a vehicle much more than normal buses could enter again, the BER is similar in that it also straddles the traffic.
Move along specialized pathways making it more like a train than a bus, actually the BER has a raised central portion that slides on two channels receiving electricity through the tracks, the vehicle is traveling at 40 km 60 km 25 miles to 37 miles per hour it could be powered partly by solar energy According to the link of the company's Chinese website, the final version will have four sections with a total length of 58 m to 62 m 190 feet to 203 feet.
The idea is to reduce jams of air pollution and traffic in the most congested cities in China Fifteen of the 50 most congested cities in the world are in China under Dutch navigation company TomTom Four of Tianjin, Nanyang, Shenyang, and Zhoukou plan to carry out pilot projects of the horse bus on the road, as well as Qinhuangdao, according to BER of various nations development technology have also expressed interest in the system, including France, Brazil, India and Indonesia.
But not everyone is on board with the idea Many fear security, particularly regarding how the BER and regular traffic interact Others question the practice of introducing in cities already have well-established transport infrastructure.
Quartz shared some articles on the BER with Hodgetts, now professor of architecture at the University of California in Los Angeles He said it appeared as an immature project with some fundamental problems.
Questions about the project preparation also linger in China, where the concept behind the BER was met with a wave of publicity when it was unveiled in 2010, Yin Zhi, professor of urban planning at Tsinghua University in Beijing, recently told the Global Times the idea of riding buses on the road was killed six years ago by a jury for its impracticality Yet he was brought back again to the public.
Concerns about the impact of the BER on the regular traffic include.
Too low space under the BER is only 2 1m September 6 feet tall This means that trucks might like wired notes stuck between the road and the lower abdomen of the BER and let's face it people load all sorts of things on top of their vehicles, all kinds of misguided ways.
tight too BER-1 two routes well traffic limits, but sometimes while driving, it becomes necessary to make a difference, even if just a little, perhaps to avoid a loose object If you are under the BER when the need arises, good luck to do it safely, especially if the other channel is occupied the tight space could also have a psychological effect on drivers, Hodgetts noted, which makes them nervous and more likely to slow .
under the BER visibility of drivers will have trouble seeing signs and traffic lights, as noted Wang Zhaoyang, a local self-claimed Qinhuangdao Beijing Jiaotong University graduate, on Zhihu, response China Quora link in Chinese.
How signaling drivers know when the BER approaches from behind if the traffic is blocked and they choose the wrong time to open a car door for any reason if they are driving, but about to turn, swerving, or changing channel, Wang asked.
Turning How BER affect the ability of regular vehicles to turn his side could prevent turning, as indicated link in Chinese by another user hat600 Zhihu, describes himself as a graduate of Tsinghua University architect.
There are other questions about the practicality of the vehicle.
Too high The vehicle height is 4 to 5 m 14 8 foot This is big enough to be a problem with some overpasses in China, Sun Zhang, a railway expert at Shanghai Tongji University, noted the Global Times .
exposed electrical tracks must be at least 1500 volt high voltage electricity to power the whole bus, Wang Lin, a former railway engineer with 16 years experience, wrote to a quartz electric railway exposed to 1,500 volts like a time bomb for me to put an electronic railway on the road is a very outdated technology that was used in the 1890s, when the electricity comes on.
Too heavy bus in its final form will be four sections of 15 tons link in Chinese, each capable of holding 300 passengers This means that the entire vehicle would weigh more than 150 tons at full capacity, assuming an average weight of a passenger 70 kg 154 lbs Over time, the engineer noted Wang, such a charge would be, at least, reduce the length of the road.
Maneuverability Due to its length, the vehicle would struggle to make turns, especially without affecting other traffic, like Wang engineer observed in an editorial link in June in Chinese in the Beijing Daily Not every city has long stretches of straight road in places that are most in need of public transport.
Cost Each BER costs about 4 to 5 million paywall, the economy of the latter enter into question the adaptation of infrastructure such as raising overpasses spending would also require the city could bus zero emissions a simpler solution Hodgetts believes it would be better to deploy the BER in a city where the traffic system is not yet established as Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.
TEB Technology Development refused to respond to repeated requests for comment on the project and the concerns it raises.
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