Chinese buses

Quote: Ayecarumba

Well, it was the most advanced car of it's time... perhaps that is what an advanced car design produces. It must have seemed really exotic to folks used to right hand seating for drivers.

Maybe Racer Enterprises had eyes on export markets from the start, but the whole thing has made me wonder for some time now.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Hehe... Maybe the Chinese bus is actually made of gold like the mammoth car in "Speed Racer" (Cruncher Block and his henchmen were using it to smuggle the stolen bullion across the border). Does the bus line go to Macau? hehe...

Wasn't that the plot of Goldfinger, except he used a Rolls Royce made of gold?

Quote: Wizard

Wasn't that the plot of Goldfinger, except he used a Rolls Royce made of gold?

The car was a sub-plot, in fact his partners were upset with him for taking such a risk for such comparatively low stakes to the big plot.

Quote: Face

Umm... how is that a bus and not a train? (He asks pedantically =p)

The technical term is "bus rapid transit" (BRT). Any technology that controls the bus in certain guideways, or rails, or that uses a computer to drive the bus so that it is level with a boarding platform and can open multiple doors, that requires you to buy a ticket before boarding, etc. In short mostly using buses but borrowing typical features of trains is referred to as BRT.

Las Vegas is probably the most advanced US city for BRT. Mexico City has some highly developed BRT routes. Capital costs can be almost as high as for light rail, but it is usually more flexible in changing routes.