The giant bus that straddles roads

In a bid to improve the environmental performance of their vehicles, London bus companies are introducing hybrid technology and experimenting with fuel cell designs, but a concept unveiled in China proposes a radical alternative that would eliminate the problems of pollution and congestion associated with diesel-powered vehicles.

The bus you drive under

The rate at which cities are growing in China has prompted designers there to come up with a design of electric bus that straddles existing roads, thereby allowing other traffic to pass underneath.

Public transport, but not as we know it

The way we travel in future may be a hybrid of personal and public transport.

The United Arab Emirates and Heathrow airport are the unlikely forerunners in personal rapid transit (PRT) technology – networks of automated ‘pod cars’ that offer on-demand, non-stop transport using small vehicles that run on specially-built tracks.

Heathrow airport aims to launch the world’s first commercial PRT system later this year, which will eventually comprise a fleet of 400 electric, four-seater pods serving outlying hotel airports and car parks.

Plans for Masdar City in Abu Dhabi include a ban on all private cars and network of automated electric pod cars. Masdar City plans to rely entirely on renewable energy a zero-carbon policy.

The company responsible for developing the Masdar scheme admits that the project will be expensive but that the service will offer a level of service unreachable by other forms of public transport.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “PRT combines the environmental advantages of public transport with the privacy and flexibility of car travel.”

“It has the potential to be highly efficient because it operates only when needed; in theory it could eliminate the need for cars and mass transit systems altogether.”

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