China’s Otherworldly Traffic-Straddling Bus Is A Futuristic Wonder

After half a decade or more in development, China is finally rolling out it’s groundbreaking “elevated bus” for road testing on a closed track. Called the “TEB-1” (Transit Elevated Bus), it probably won’t be hitting main roads throughout the country any time soon as the monstrosity still has to work out any kinks and safety issues before being unleashed on the cities of the most populated country in the world. If all goes according to plan though, this bus could prove to be a major breakthrough in diminishing both traffic volume and the costs of public transportation.

As it stands, the bus costs less than a fifth of the budget it takes to build a new subway, can be built in a year, and has a potential capacity of up to 1,200 people – even though the prototype can only hold a max of 300. That’s humongous! 1,200 people is more than would fill some Broadway theaters and more than double the capacity of the Airbus A380 – the largest passenger plane currently in the skies. If you are wondering how specifically this bus would work once deployed on a crowded urban street, the below video lays things out pretty clearly.

That demonstration doesn’t make things any less nerve wracking when imagining what it would feel like to be a car on that street. A gigantic bus drifting overheard like it’s some kind of enemy spaceship is horrifying to imagine, even if it is the answer to increasingly complicated traffic congestion. From the early look of it, people are super excited about the possibility of a fleet of these futuristic people carriers being a real thing.

(via Gizmodo)