China is a country of extremes. The world’s most populous nation; the
world’s fastest-growing major economy, the world’s biggest exporter.
It has the world’s longest sea bridge, the world’s fastest train and is
the world’s biggest market for cars. The list goes on and on. And its
record breaking ways look like they are set to continue for a while yet.
Take
that last point. In the mid 80s the country only produced a few
thousand cars and hardly anyone actually owned one. Now, it is the
world’s largest producer of cars and the world’s largest consumer. Last
year, 18 million vehicles were sold, dwarfing the 12.7 million sold in
the US. And this sudden explosion has meant a massive rise in one thing:
traffic.
However, the ever expanding urban population needs to
keep moving and so the government has turned to another extreme
solution: the mega bus.
“China is generally looking very hard at
new public transport systems” says John Austin, an independent public
transport who has worked in Europe, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The advantage of buses, he says, is that they can be quick – and cheap
– to install, compared to other transport systems, like light railways.
