A Chinese firm has come up with an innovative green solution to reducing traffic congestion. Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment has designed an electric bus fitted with solar panels which straddles the road allowing cars to drive underneath it while it lets passengers on and off.
Frequently stopping buses are a major cause of slow moving traffic and often infuriate drivers stuck behind them. The new design, dubbed the 3D Express Coach solves this problem by soaring above the road at 15 ft high, creating space for cars to travel through it. Passengers are carried loftily above in the huge bus which is designed to have space for as many as 1400 travellers at any one time.
According to the Daily Mail, which features pictures of the design, the bus will use solar panels to help its electric motor power it to a top speed of 37 mph. It is reported that the bus could help cut traffic jams by as much as 30 per cent.
Unveiled at the 13th Beijing International High-tech Expo in May, the bus and the tracks it uses to run along will cost 500 million yuan (4.6 million) to build however the firm claims this is only 10 per per cent of the cost of an equivalent subway system.
Any cars that drove too close to the bus would automatically set off an alarm triggered by radar sensors while drivers beneath would be warned when the bus was about to make a turn.
A pilot scheme for the bus is set to take place in Beijing’s Mentougou District, with construction on the first 186km of track due to begin at the end of this year.
