Public transportation in China's Hunan Province may soon be a fine ART.
The acronym stands for Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit, and according to the state-run Xinhuanet (h/t CNET) it's something we may soon see in Zhuzhou City.
The innovation is essentially a bus that uses painted paths to guide it along its way. Sensors see the pathway and stay on course, much like a train would on a track.
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The other cool part is the bus is modular, which means compartments can be added to make it bigger or taken away to streamline the route.
The promising advance is thanks to the work of rail maker CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. Its chief engineer, Feng Jianghua, explains to Xinhuanet, "It is like having a virtual rail for the bus."
Feng continued, explaining that cities would benefit greatly: "There is huge demand for urban transit systems with China's urbanization drive."
This virtual train is one answer to needed mass transit without taking on the immense cost of building a subway system. The publication contends that a kilometer of subway runs between $58 million to $102 million whereas this system would cost $2.2 million for one ART bus.
Instead of building the train and clearing space for a track, this would run on roads and demand nothing more than the paint to show it the way. As New China TV states, the innovation runs on electric power, so it's greener than trains that might still run on fossil fuels.
That would seem to run in tandem with other such efforts. China has plans to shift a major portion of its taxi industry in Beijing to electric cars reports suggested in February.
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This is also far more plausible, it would seem, than the country's other highfalutin concept transport system: An enormous bus that would ride above traffic, was tested last August to much fanfare. Fortune.com then reported in December that the straddle bus and its development seemed to have been all but abandoned.
With newfangled sensors and roads ready to take on the paint, ART may be a far more efficient answer to the congestion that continues to plague various cities.
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