Designs for an elevated bus that carries passengers over cars have been unveiled by engineers in China.
Models for the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) show the vehicle – which resembles a tram more than a bus – moving above the road surface while cars drive through the tunnel-like space beneath it.
The designs were unveiled at the 19th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo alongside models of deep-sea submersibles, lunar rovers and virtual-reality canoes.
While the model debuted at the Beijing expo looks more like a toy railway set than an example of the future of city transport, plans for the elevated bus are already taking shape.
The TEB will have a capacity of 1,200 passengers, the same as a standard subway train, but will cost just one fifth as much to build.
"Its construction can be finished in one year," said Bai Zhiming, the engineer in charge of the TEB project.
Running on rails embedded into the road surface, the elevated bus is one possible solution to China's problems with traffic congestion.
According to the Chinese newspaper The People's Daily the first tests of the bus are scheduled to start during the second half of this year in Qinhuangdao City.
The paper predicts that the buses could be in use by the end of this year.