Culture

China's Straddling Bus Derails Into Controversy

The whole project may turn out to be one big disappointment—or worse, a full-on scam.
Designer Song Yuzhou shows his ambitious plan to build a "straddling bus" in 2010.AP/Andy Wong

China’s futuristic straddling bus was an idea that sounded straight out of a science fiction novel. It seemed too good to be true. And, as it turns out, it may be.

Just days after its high-profile unveiling in the northeastern city of Qinghaungdao—quashing doubts that the project would ever get off the ground—the bus (or train, as some have argued) seems to have driven right into a ditch of dashed hopes.