Innovative public transport: China’s 3-D Express Coach

Charmian Love

August 5, 2010

Buses vs. Cars.

The road wars between these two modes of transportation has been escalating in cities around the world to a breaking point.

China is getting ready to experiment with an interesting solution to this dilemma – one  that allows buses and cars to share the road, rather than compete for valuable real estate lanes.  This will become increasingly important as traffic congestion will inevitably grow in heavily populated urban areas.

Whereas many of us think about an ‘either/or’ way of tackling a problem, China has taken a leap forward by proposing a new and innovative solution – a third way.  Instead of building more space for one means of transportation by trading off space of the other, for example expanding bus lanes, they have developed a 3-D Express Coach which creates more room for both.

The premise is surprisingly simple.  If you can’t go around it – go over it.

The new buses are designed to sit above existing car traffic, essentially ‘straddling’ the  flow of cars that are free to travel underneath.  The buses will run on 6m tracks that sit on either side of the road.   This will allow 1200-1400 passengers to travel at speeds up to 60km/hr – powered by both solar energy and electricity. And if you think this is something for the far and distant future – here is the big suprise…  Plans are in the works to pilot this new system next year with 115 miles of track installed in Beijing’s Mentougou district starting in late 2010.

But what is truly remarkable about this plan is the price tag. The Chairman of the Huashi Future Parking Equipment Company, the organisation responsible for this innovation, expects that construction of the transportation system will come in at 500 million yuan (around $73 million).

What are other problems in your city that could benefit from some ‘third way’ innovation?