The idea of China’s “traffic-straddling bus” has come to an abrupt stop following the arrests of 32 people from a key investment company that backed the project.
The strange idea consisted of a bus that ran on specially-designed tracks with an elevated body that essentially allowed it to drive over traffic. However, many critics raised concerns with the project, particularly how expensive it could be to deploy and the fact that taller vehicles could become stuck under the bus.
In August 2016, the Transit Elevated Bus was tested in Qinhuangdao and while it worked, many were concerned about what the company was up to, including a New York Times reporter who saw investors leaving gifts and walking away with bags of money when visiting the company’s office in Huaying Kailai.
Speaking to the reporter, the director of development and planning for TEB Tech, the company developing the bus, Zhang Wei, said “We are just a private tech company. We are not a briefcase company for illegal fund-raising.
“Everything we do is approved by related departments in the government, and if we are an illegal company with financial issues, why are the local governments still interested in us?” he asked.
According to the writer of a Beijing News op-ed, the project “was nothing more than a trick to attract investors…the truth is the bus was a fake science investment scam, with no scientific innovation.”