These buses run In Sao Paulo and apparently Saudi Arabia bought about 35 of them from Brazil. It a double reticulated triple length bus. This should be on a track and called a train. It’s close to ridiculous.
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From the photo, I think there are places in my city where that bus could stop first in line at a red light, and the rear of the bus would stretch into the intersection one block back. That’s huge, and it seems that the disadvantage of its cumbersome size would outweigh any efficiency considerations.
Hell, though, I’d bet there are a few rock bands or country-western stars who are absolutely salivating at the idea of such a large concert tour bus!
having that much metal and rubber, is it really cost effective to have this? 2 or 3 buses could do the same thing, won’t eat as much fuel (as that giant bus must have a giant engine to match) as 3 buses and can be sold out to private parties when the buses have outlived their usefulness. but then again, who wouldn’t want to have that big of a blind spot.
I wonder if it is able to travel at a decent speed with decent fuel mileage??? Can it turn corners?? I sounds like a waste of money to me.
Looks like it would take 3 terrorists to take that one out.
Why have these huge moving machines? Such a mainframe centric idea. Why not turn every road in Sao Paolo into a conveyor belt or walkalator ?
This is mass transit, which by it’s very nature is a bad thing. If every driver had one of these for themselves – then that would be cool. You can actually get the minimum amount of stuff you need to carry with you everywhere into one of these.
In the end, it’s double length, not triple, and it doesn’t run on any street, only on some, that were specially prepared. You wouldn’t want to see them competing with cars on the streets.
But when they do turn a corner, it is an amazing sight.
Those big buses only run on special lanes. They are usually located on the center of main avenues and are exclusively for buses, this way they don’t get jammed in trafic.
The speed limit for buses is 50 Km/h (about 30 miles/h). Not all buses are as huge as those, these big buses only do main routes.
Mass transit transport in São Paulo is usually crowded specially in rush hour. Riding one of those buses is actually very good. They go faster and aren’t as crowded as regular buses. Unfortunately not many roads are prepared for them.
Subway is the best alternative here in São Paulo, but it doesn’t cover all the parts of town like buses do.
I love the turnstyles inside Brazilian buses. It’s like being at a football game, typically Brazilian. Sadly riding a bus in Rio and/or Sao Paulo is pretty dangerous thanks to hijackings and kidnappings.
Hey John pop down to the main bus station in Sao Paulo, it’s huge! The largest in South America. Brazil uses more buses than any other country in the world. It’s such a huge market that there are two Brazilian companies dediated to building buses just for the Brazilian market. The cross country buses are so comfortable, it’s amazing.
Interesting, and very reminiscent of the Australian Road-Trains. I wonder if they run on the E85 that has been touted by many in Brazil’s energy infrastructure.
Alas in Manhattan double articulated buses are now often used on the crosstown routes (the subways generally don’t go cross town).
This is efficient in one sense (gets em loaded), but the time spent loading and unloading so many people every block or so (cross town streets are often the equivalent of 2-3 north-south blocks) makes for VERY slow bus service!
Don’t even think of triple-long!
Interesting that some of the complaints about this design are based on it not being able to replace normal buses – can’t turn tight enough, loading/unloading times, etc.
Those concerns would only be a problem if they were used to replace normal buses. That leads me to believe the big busses are mainly used for express service, like some of our “park & ride” shuttles, here in the US. [but I’m only guessing].
Needing a bigger engine is not an issue. Acceleration would suffer if a normal-sized engine was used, but once at speed the engine only has to generate enough power to overcome friction [rolling resistance]from the air and tires – which is why GM’s Northstar V8, among others, can stop using 4 of its 8 cylinders when crusing down the freeway.
I’d prefer a handful of those buses over a hundred SUVs.
1 Bus per citizen. Have to make an off-road version to complete the coolness though.
Maybe one of the locals can chime in, but I didn;t notice that these were any sort of express bus.
This town is filled to the brim with buses. Most of the drivers drive like psychopaths gunning it when there is a red light ahead so they can slam on the brakes and come within inches of some subcompact casully stopped. Then sit there looming menacingly one inch behind the little car. Some of the bus drivers swerve all over as if they were taxi drivers.