Initial plans to develop a lane-spanning bus in China were met with great enthusiasm but some skepticism, the latter of which is now being addressed via a real-life, full-sized prototype.

The idea is simple: a bus that arches over traffic is neither hinders nor is hindered by other vehicles on the road. Its mass and reduced need to start and stop also make the bus more sustainable than most transit options in terms of energy efficiency as well.

The mega-vehicle is spacious and vast, 72 feet long, 25 feet wide and 16 feet tall. With seven feet of clearance, leaves plenty of room below for ordinary road vehicles.

The bus runs on specialized tracks on either side of two-lane traffic roadways and can carry up to 300 passengers at top speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.

Since the concept has been demonstrated, countries including Brazil, France, India and Indonesia have expressed interest in the TEB-1 system, hoping to deploy it on their own congested urban roadways.

A Chinese transportation company behind a lane-straddling bus design (which passes over lanes rather than occupying them) is moving from scale to full-sized test models this summer. The plan is to introduced fully-functional models of these “land airbuses” to (or: above) the streets of Beijing over the next few years.

The inspiration for this seemingly-novel design dates back to a 1960s “Landliner” proposed for New York City that would likewise ride on side rails adjacent to roadways. Cars would simply pass beneath the buses uninterrupted, moving faster than the bus in high traffic and allowing the bus to move over traffic jams. Such a system would be a fraction of the cost and effort compared to subway systems or even raised railways.

In China, these new buses would hold up to 1,400 passengers each and cruise at up to 40 miles per hour, which sounds slow until you consider they do not have to stop for traffic. Running on electricity, these designs would reduce the need for conventional buses and cut polluting emissions. As a cyberpunk bonus: cars passing beneath these vehicles will see digital simulations of the sky above.

For now, Transit Explore Bus is constructing a life-size model in Changzhou. This will allow real-time testing with actual cars, intersections and infrastructure, facilitating further refinements and eventual street deployments. For a country with serious pollution and traffic problems, this kind of solution could be just what is needed – for each new super-bus, 40 ordinary buses can be taken off the roads.