The Chinese Straddling Bus

I found this courtesy of my homie Ant at Backyard Banter

Having lived in cities for all of my life, I've noticed two distinct problems that plague every city: traffic congestion and public transportation. Some cities have so many cars on the road that public transportation suffers, while other cities have so many cars that everyone suffers. The amount of vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles, bikes) on the roads today make finding sustainable ways to keep our cities' roadways moving a high priority. That said, few people have found good methods to lessen the congestion while keeping costs down. Until now. Shenzhen Huashi of China has developed an ingenious, yet remarkably simple concept to ease congestion in cities: the Straddling Bus. The bus uses the space in between different lanes on a street, and literally straddles the road, going over cars, other (smaller buses), trucks, small motor vehicles and pedestrians. It would use electric and solar energy to run, as well as be easier to construct than, say a subway. People would enter and exit the straddling bus through ladders on the side or through overpasses. Plus, the straddling bus (in the demonstration) has a capacity of 1200 people per bus, which dumps all over any other modern transport system in the world. All in all, this is an brilliant idea because it's so simple. It almost makes you wonder 'Why didn't I think of this?'. The straddling bus already has over 186 km of track ready to start construction next year, so this concept is about to make it to practice really soon. Check out the video and some flicks...