It will happen if it is China since they have a great resolve but a lot to learn.

I can certainly understand the problem of transpose western ides on a huge county and large cities regarding transportation.

Despite being a huge country, land and transportation is a real challenge that will have to be met by combining other ideas into the unique situation.

I remember seeing a Mercedes stuck in fresh concrete on a new freeway off ramp near Shanghai before the tapes and warnings were up. The internet said the ramp/exit was being completed, but never say it was operational. They have all the financial resources and resources (but some are limited or unbalanced in development). The modernizing of industry is too slow because of the existing capacity and established volumes and traditional use of old materials (wood is now frowned on because of ecology and land use) but the transitions to steel and concrete take time, adoption and training.

It was an exploding place starting about 15-20 years ago and has the technology and resources that can outstrip the adoption/learning process that other counties have seen over a few hundred years. I stayed at a hotel in either Beijing or Shanghai and when 2 years later, while walking through the neighborhood I was familiar with a 2 lane main artery that was converted to a 6 lane divided (stainless, continuous dividers) parkway 2 to 3 miles long that was jammed with people with I pods, lined with 3 to 15 story buildings, open stores with chrome, stainless, glass, lights and music plus bumper to bumper traffic on the street at 1:00 AM. When I got back to my hotel 2 blocks away, the toilet would not work. China is a powerful, work in progress.

China is the largest energy user and auto producer in the world but the biggest imports are Mercedes, BMW and Buick. They have some of the best American barbecue ribs in the world. They are building a wall between China and North Korea to avoid the low cost immigrant labor.

Rickshaws are a remnant of the old movies since a population of 5,000,000 will only put you in the top 15 or 20. It took 3 trips to get a picture of one since they are only in the small towns that represent a small part of the population in an undeveloped country.

Just some observations through thee years and I look forward to seeing more.

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.

This idea is an abomination of the "Terrafoil" concept as proposed by Professor Billy Hartz of the University of Washington in the late 60's.  

Never caught on, but was a novel idea, and, in my opinion, it would have worked, and much better.

 

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto:  KISS
Motivation:  Don't ask

I thought vehicles that ran on tracks were called trains.

Seriously, though, it's a novel concept, but it has some structural challenges.  For instance, how strong do the sides need to be to hold up the structure weight, the live load, and to withstand a car wreck underneath?  

i like it

The more I think about it, the system could be good for China, where the amount of car traffic is spiraling upwards and land space is limited despite the size of the county because of geography and housing patterns established centuries ago before there were cars. The engineering of the bus is a minor problem that can be solved, since there are no cross-traffic situations on the freeways where this would probably be used. The fire problem of an accident below the passenger area should be able to be solved also.

With little room for on and off ramps the concept of having a bus straddling a couple of lanes and still allow some of the other traffic to continue (at a slower speed, due to human reactions to bridges and confined areas) because the use of car traffic patterns is not firmly established yet. In or around the 20 largest cities (4,000,000 or more), there is very little space and they are already the world's largest car producer, most of which are for internal use and the European imports are just a small percentage. The traffic and space problems will only get worse.

The 115 miles in Beijing should be a good test to see if the system could work in a more challenging area such as Shanghai that is larger and on the water to limit options. The project will probably start as scheduled IF it is approved quickly by the government (which is much faster than elsewhere), but it could drag on due to the unknowns discovered during construction.

I have several friends in China that have heard about the projects, but knew little, which is not surprising because of the specialization of the design and construction firms (usually combined under their system). This is understandable and a relic of 20 years ago.

Something interesting to follow.

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.