In the global race for green superiority, China is often seen as a frontrunner. In fact, China recently announced plans to invest 5 trillion yuan ($739 billion) in energy industries including nuclear, wind, solar, biomass, clean coal, smart grid, distributed energy and green autos by 2020. This is good news for the 1.3 billion people living in China because, according to this week’s Newsweek, “a new study shows that in the first half of 2010, China’s air quality actually deteriorated for the first time in five years.”
The reason? “China’s swarms of new cars and industries are damaging the environment faster than the country’s efforts at green retooling can save it.”
But, according to NYTimes.com, China’s Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment has a solution: The 3D Express Coach, “a decidedly odd-looking, extra-wide and extra-tall vehicle that can carry up to 1,200 passengers.
“Though it is called the ‘straddling bus,’ Huashi’s invention resembles a train in many respects – but it requires neither the elevated tracks nor extensive tunneling. Its passenger compartment spans the width of two traffic lanes and sits high above the road surface, on a pair of fencelike stilts that leave the road clear for ordinary cars to pass underneath. It runs along a fixed route.”
How could I not blog about this?
Indeed, Mark Lacter of LAOBserved.com was right when he introduced the bus saying “this has to be one the strangest ideas for improving traffic flow that you’ll ever run across.”
Still, as Engadget.com said, “this cunning project … actually makes sense. The idea is to make use of the space between regular-size cars and bridges, thus saving construction costs as well as minimizing congestion impact by allowing cars to drive underneath these jumbo buses.”
And, they’re green. According to NYTimes.com, the buses:
- Will be powered by a combination of municipal electricity and solar power from panels on the roofs of the buses and the stops.
- Could reduce traffic jams by 25 to 30 percent on main routes.
- Could replace up to 40 conventional buses, potentially saving the 860 tons of fuel that 40 buses would consume annually, and preventing 2,640 tons of carbon emissions.
Additionally, according to HuffingtonPost.com, the cost of building the bus and a 40 kilometer path for it is only 10 percent of what it would cost to build an equivalent subway. Construction of the first track is set to begin in Beijing’s Mentougou district by the end of the year.
These coaches are a great solution for a country whose rising affluence is adding to the number of cars on the road (and, subsequently, traffic jams), and where an estimated 350 million people are going to move to its cities by 2015.
“China is the world’s largest polluter, and Beijing is eager to reduce carbon emissions,” NYTimes.com said. The “three-dimensional fast bus” is moving China is the right direction.
(Video courtesy of YouTube. Photos courtesy of HuffingtonPost.com.)
[...] green superiority in jeopardy. The innovation team from What Are We Thinking takes a look at the 3D Express Coach, a uniquely designed 1,200-passenger vehicle and the country’s latest effort to help offset deteriorating air [...]