Travel Editor

Apparently, Europe is finding new and efficient ways to travel. The department of Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology (ASSET) at Delft University in the Netherlands has come up with a unique form of public transportation. The sleek aerodynamic bus is being called the “Superbus” which suits the look.

This futuristic stretch limosine has the speed of an inter-city tain with the flexibility of a bus. The Dutch creators are hoping it will make traveling by bus seem cool and more liked by the common person.

"With speeds of up to 155 mph and offering point-to-point travel, this is a vision of environmentally-friendly public transportation of the future," Professor Wubbo Ockels of Delft University of Technology told CNN.

And so the Superbus has been designed in order to rescue us from congestion. It's the same length as a conventional bus, but some would say it looks to be the size of a football field. This is because the electrically powered machine is only one meter 60 centimeters high. That means that passengers can't stand up inside the Superbus, but they won't need to since it has 8 doors on each side. It is also intended to run on roads and dedicated high-speed tracks at over 150 mph.

Passengers will order a seat on the bus via a text message and be able to board rapidly from a pick-up point no more than a mile from where they live. An internal computer will sort through the text messages and compute the shortest route to pick up the person waiting.
Knowing what it’s like to sit in a stuffy, dirty bus where the only entertainment is a static-filled tv is what motivates the Delft University team make the Superbus as far from the experience of a long-distance bus ride as possible.

"Public transport shouldn't interrupt your life. Passengers will be welcomed by name, can enter the bus via an individual door and will find all the entertainment and connectivity that would find on an airplane," said Ockels.

To avoid breaking Dutch speed limits the Superbus would cruise along special high-speed tracks that they claim would be very easy to build into existing roadways. Compared to the cost of laying train or mag-lev rails, building a network of special tracks for the Superbus to drive on would be much more practical and cheaper. Running next to existing highways, they would also have less of an impact on the landscape.

The tracks themselves would also incorporate technology that has an eye on sustainability and increased performance. Utilizing geothermal heating, they would store heat in the summer and release it during the winter to avoid icing up. But it is the Superbus itself, rather then the infrastructure that is the focus for innovation.

For a smooth, safe drive, proactive suspension systems are being developed that can adapt to the roughness of the road and use advanced radar systems to scan hundreds of meters ahead for any obstacles or accidents.

"We've deliberately tried to keep the majority of the intelligence and technology within the vehicle and made the infrastructure, such as the high-speed tracks more benign," said Ockels.

"We know how to make light weight materials, how to design and make beautiful vehicles, how to use IT and SMS technology, so what we're trying to do is bring them all together."
Former BMW-Williams Formula 1 designer Dr. Antonia Terzi is now working on the Superbus, so it's no wonder it looks more like a batmobile rather than a rectangle on wheels. "What we're trying to do is provide the tools for people to make their future better," said Ockels.