Street vendors are making good business selling food, water and cigarettes to drivers. Vehicles have become easy pickings for thieves at night when drivers are asleep, including petrol siphoning, according to the UK newspaper the Metro.
A long-term solution may be on the horizon with an elevated “super bus” designed to straddle two lanes of cars to alleviate congestion. The bus may arrive on roadways in December this year.
The eco-friendly straddle bus runs on both electricity and solar power, and will travel on rails. There will be two “legs,” each holding a capacity of 1,200 to 1,400 people on walls 3 meters above the streets.
Two lanes of small to medium-sized cars can pass under the compartment with laser scanners between the legs to warn cars to keep at a safe distance. An ultra-sonic detector to the rear will deny access to over-sized vehicles.
The bus “could ease traffic congestion by up to 30 percent, as it does not take up actual road space, but special tracks would have to be put down, elevated bus stops built and new traffic signals developed,” an official told AFP.
