Why the Straddling Bus Failed 

Serious shout outs to the makers for inventing trains but worse

When I first saw the Straddling Bus I immediately thought about trams. Trams are cool, and work well with light rail.

My favorite part is how the CGI straddling bus literally morphs into a curve as it goes around curves even though the actual bus has almost zero articulation.

Lmao that sponsorship No dig at you, you gotta get that bread, but it had a vibe of "what if NFTs were real and not ugly???" to me

Ah, the straddling bus! I remember when this was first proposed I referred to its philosophy as, "I don't care where the poor people go, just as long as they're not in the way of my car."

3:49 4:10 I love how the mockup shows the bus frame has to bend and flex impossibly, just to turn on even the slightest curve. The true turn radius for this thing has got to be stupidly large.

Congrats for the people behind this project for combining all the disadvantages of buses, trams and monorail in one inconvenient package

Please don't advertise Masterworks. Art is an even bigger bubble than housing.

I love how the bus bends while going around the corners... even shinny CGI couldn't prevent my Bullshit alarms from going off...

I can't take your opposition to a scam like a straddling bus seriously, when you're doing an ad for another scam, MasterWorks.

It’s also great how disorienting these would be for any drivers, how they completely prevent lane changing between the lanes it drives on, and how almost all traffic would need to be stopped at any traffic light the bus would turn at.

Alright, here's my crazy idea. We can fix this design instead of throwing it out. What if instead of raising the bus, we raise the tracks. So the tracks are high above the road, allowing us to ignore the height of vehicles so even semi trucks can pass underneath. This change of focus also allows us to elongate the busses, adding more seating space. And, since there's no need to worry about blocking traffic, we can string the busses together in a chain. I just need a snappy name for it and it'll be perfect.

Adam, we appreciate you pointing out all the technical flaws, but you missed 1 important flaw. No one in their right mind would be ok with being underneath one of those things in their car!

When you want to avoid building trains so much you wrap around and invent a crappier version of a train

Great video, as always. I must say that I'm not too happy about that sponsorship, though... Always get the feeling that these types of companies prey on the desperate and ignorant

You could do a full 30 minute video on every single Dahiir Insaat idea. They range from unfeasible to literal nightmares to warcrime machines.

My instant reaction to this idea a decade ago was "it's going to get trapped behind a truck within the first 3 blocks, and then it will just be a worse version of a regular bus." Good analogy about trying to chip away at the margins while never addressing the actual problem, too. Of all the "what if we made trains but worse" ideas, this might actually be the dumbest, which is really saying something.

Hey, listen, the Straddling Bus concept worked great for my city. Y'know, my Lego city. At age 9. If it encountered a problem, the rocket-powered VTOL was always there to just pick it up and set it into a better spot. Engineering is my passion.

You gotta love how the rigid parts of the cgi bus are shifting & bending in the curves.

I can imagine driving under this thing, and then having to break quickly when it makes a turn. Genius.

An add on to the point about vans is that vans are one of the few vehicles that can't be replaced with public transportation due to the fact that they are often used for specialized business purposes like plumbing or HVAC. They will be on the road, no matter how a city is designed.

Wow Masterworks seems like just as big a scam as this straddling bus. Thanks for the unsolicited investing advice! 🙃

I like how in the animations, the body of the vehicle bends like rubber as it goes around corners.

And now imagine your car is under the bus at a junction, and the bus turns right, while you actually wanted to drive straight. You have to stop and cause a traffic jam, or you have to follow the bus a take an other way to your destination.

I'm just gonna say it. As a long time fan of the channel, this is important to me. This sponsor sucks. Rich people abuse sitting on art to stay rich. Tech bros offering me the scraps of this broken system? Not for me. Art should be art, not an investment vehicle. Love the videos. Glad you're getting sponsors. Just wish it was something else :/

Remember, it's 7m wide and each carriage is 12m long, so to take a turn... well... you are gonna need a stupidly large radius (otherwise, the "rear" of a carriage will swing to one side too much)... Whiiich is why very conveniently in the animation, each carriage appears to be made of rubber :^)

I love your videos, but this sponsorship disgusts me.

I’m embarrassed to admit I thought this was amazing when it was proposed. In my defence my city was busy REMOVING bike lanes and I really needed to believe in something 😂

I've been a fan of your videos recently, and the sponsorship today struck me as a bit odd. Companies like Masterworks are reminiscent of Crypto companies in the way they try to take advantage of ignorant people with money to throw away on exotic investments. It's difficult to liquidate unless you're willing to take a loss on their secondary market, and the actual returns are relatively low thanks to their high fees and the cut they take of the sold paintings. For Americans, the tax rate for capital gains on paintings is also higher (28%) than that of stocks (20%). This is not even mentioning the sketchiness around the company's practices, like their "minimum investment" which seems to be based on the money the particular person they're selling the service to has available. While no one could reasonably fault content creators for running advertisements, there is a responsibility as a content creator that the things you advertise are reputable and good for the audience. Especially for a channel like this which has a focus on debunking bad or fraudulent ideas, advertising such a dubious investment strategy as if it's an obvious way to make money (even calling it the "forefront of innovation"), brings your credibility into question, regardless of the quality of the actual video.

I like how it would clearly need extra space lateral to the tracks to turn properly but the animation completely glosses over this by making the whole bus flexible

My favorite part about the CGI bus is that it has the same problem as the polar express, it just. B E N D S. This shit ain't rubber

I love that the entire bus literally bends around corners in the animations 😂 Something that wide going around a corner would require some immense hinge joints!

I saw it and immediately thought “Trucks exist”. It took me a fraction of a second to think of a problem that “the company of the future” ignored

I love how the thing is completely supple and flexible in the 3D renders that make it take turns way too sharp for its width.

Can you imagine how freaked out people would get when that giant monstrosity overtakes you on the road! You put that in any major city and they would shut it down in a month due to accidents.

There's a reason for busses and trams being in use for 150 years: They work. Soon somebody will reinvent the wheel, but based on an octagon to pass it off as an innovation.

I’ve been a fan of your content for a good while now, and it’s honestly a little bit shocking that you decide to go with sponsors like this. In your videos, you always use critical thinking very effectively to support your arguments, which is why it’s so odd that you’re being sponsored by Masterworks. Companies that treat art as some sort of investment game are already a pretty big red flag, but this one also seems to share many similarities with things like NFTs, which are known to be shady and scammy.

Suddenly being swallowed by that thing while driving and mind their business must have been truly terrifying.

good video but terrible sponsor. please reconsider

I need a series where Adam reviews crappy CGI videos of "solutions" to our problems. Cause that channel at the end was a gold mine.

Why go for a bus that goes on top of cars, when you could have used a bus that Goes ALONG cars? aka, why not just use the cheaper option of normal bus. I mean, you could also put some cool decorations or make the bus frame out of gold so it cost the same, with very little difference.

I love how the entire straddling bus bends whenever it goes around a bend because the animators just parented the model to a curve.

I didn't even think about bus lanes as an alternative to it until you brought it up because the idea of cities not already having bus lanes is one of those things I actively have to think about.

Hahaha @3:52 the entire bus bends in the turn like it was made of rubber. I bet even the animator went “how tf this gonna work irl? Oh well, cha bu duo”

LMFAO @ the sponsor. can't even think of how much they must've paid you to shill for their bullshit

What I really love is how the chasis of the bus is made of rubber. Look at it bend and flex as it took that right-hand turn (which also cut off the right turn lane).

I remember the Straddling Bus! I thought it was interesting but never thought much else from it. I'm surprised they even made it to prototype. I love Dahir Insaat videos! I strongly urge people watch through them, they are gold. My favourite is the deployable, solar-powered, camouflaged, anti-tank platforms that get dropped into fields to stop hordes of enemy tanks by firing shells without any kind of barrel with perfect accuracy. It's called "Изделие №1".

Imagine having one of these going over you when you're not expecting it, the amount of people who would panic break/swerve especially in the first few months (maybe even years) of implementation.

As someone in Hungary, who spends about 20 mins/day at a single intersection on a bus, in a dedicated bus lane... It's more complicated than "just paint a bus lane". Implementation is key.

I'm getting pretty sick of "innovation" where they reinvent something to solve a non existent problem, but worse than the original solution in every way.

I've always wondered how that straddling bus was supposed to work. Firstly, those turns don't look realistic at all; because of its width, it would need massive chunks chunks of its interior dedicated to sections to accommodate the turning. Secondly, it can only pass over low traffic, so any taller traffic (buses, vans, trucks, fire trucks, ambulances) will be block it or be blocked by it. It's super vulnerable to being blocked, and when it's blocked, it will block everything around it; side streets, street parking, pedestrian crossing, etc. A dedicated bus lane is indeed a much better idea.

The thing with the straddling bus is, it could work, but you would have spend years of trial and error and invest millions, not only in development, but also on adapting the streets to the bus. You could make it work, but before spending time and money in getting it working, most people would just build one of the many cheaper, simpler mediums of transportation that have already been made countless times before.

I get Adam has to make money somehow, but I do find it more than a little ironic that he's, delightfully as always, bashing some new transit boondoggle while reading copy from a service that is a financial boondoggle. All investment has inherent risk. There is no such thing as guaranteed profit. Masterworks charges very high fees and has low-liquidity, so be aware that your investment value can fluctuate below its initial capital and be drawn down by fees.

I could see people swerving on reflex when these things go overhead. Having one of these go overhead would be incredibly distracting! Also, just build an elevated rail if you really want this! Still terrible, but less likely to cause traffic clusterfucks when someone hits one of the legs!

Whenever you see something with an oddly complicated or flashy mechanism, it's a guaranteed meme machine. In the world of engineering simple is best because simple means robust. More moving parts means more can break down. I mean even the maintenance cost of simple machines can already bankrupt companies sometimes, now image this.

I genuinely can't stop binge watching your videos, and you get 10x better with each passing video

I love how in the renders the buses actually bend like they're made of rubber rather than articulate in chunks at the junctions between carriages.

I can not for the life of me get over the fact that in the CG videos they made the damn individual carriages BEND LIKE PLAYDOH when it takes a turn.

Personally I've just wondered how many car wrecks that would cause. City streets are already terrifying to navigate. Especially if you're not a person who is in the city often. Just imagine trying to deal with people in cars when all of a sudden that thing swoops over head.

I love how in the renderings the rigid body of this thing bends when making turns. Even a completely imaginary rendering can’t make this thing work 😂

I saw the car grocery store at the end. I paused, noting different machines seemed to have different items and then realizing it was a grocery store that you drive around before proceeding to the man buying... so much meat, I said "This is a vision of hell." before Adam said the same thing. I feel, looking at these structures this animation must be part of the prequel to Cars, where the cars invaded every aspect of our lives before they ultimately took over.

Did you also notice how the 3D-render of the rigid structure acted like it was made of jelly when it made a turn? The whole 3D-model was distorted with the turn. That's not how metal works. Is this thing supposed to be like an articulated bus as well, only that the whole car is made out of the flexible material? This thing, being as wide as it is wouldn't even have a chance to be above anything else than a straight road. Maybe they planned to sell it to Dubai? Great points as always, btw!

"Shouldn't we put the track on stilts instead of the moving several-ton vehicle?" "Nah, that would make _too_ much sense!"

God damn Dahir is living his absolute best keto life out here

This is a genuinely very nice video, however I really don't trust masterworks honestly... It looks like yet another scam you would have hated if they didn't offer you lots of money to make people believe this nonsense. Also another point against that kind of bus: they would not me able to flex around corners like they are shown in the ads.

So I guess we shouldn't expect an "art market is a scam" video from Adam XD

Also imagine this thing at intersections. Imagine trying to generally drive or turn when this huge hunk of metal is above you and you can’t see the road signs n stuff either

Here's an idea... build trams. Melbourne has a ton of trams and you can get anywhere with one in the CBD, it's because of trams that the Bourke St mall is near fully walkable. Honestly, every time I go to Melbourne I don't drive. Take a train to the city, get around the city with trams and the metro. It's so easy.

I just love how the animations have a fairly standard mixed road use, with cars, vans and transport trucks, but all expect the cars disappear when the straddling bus appears. The moment I saw that the thing needs rails, the question of "why not just build a train instead" popped into my head. For these thing you will need to build a bunch of new specialized infrastructure that won't be compatible with anything else anyways, so why not go with a proven solution that is highly efficient? Oh, wait, that technology actually exist so you can't embezzle a bunch of money out of the R&D department and not actually deliver anything. I call that the "EM Vapourware" approach.

Dont you just love it when you're chilling on a beautiful mediterranean coast and then a whole UFO rolls above you every few minutes, blowing away your blanket, hindering the sun, and replacing the sound of relaxing waves with the blaring noise of multiple engines!

Before watching the video, I already have a number of questions about this "concept", such as: How does it get over lorries, under bridges, round bends, basically anywhere? How much does it cost to build one of these compared with say, a tram or a bus lane? It seems such an obvious non-starter as not to be worth the time deconstructing it.

Tbf there are more things needed to be done than just "just build bus lanes" and i know that you probably said that for the sake of being concise, but i understand the sentiment

DON'T BADMOUTH OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR DAHIIR INSAAT YOU MISSED HIS QUADCOPTERS GUN SYSTEMS Also, I remember seeing this shit as 16 years old in a "Popular Science" equivalent and thinking "that's absolutely dumb, one driver being an idiot and the whole system crashes down and drivers are idiots a LOT of the time", yet techbros fell for it enough to lose money on such harebrained scheme.

I love how the "straddling bus" bends itsself when turning.

I work at Transport Canada now, and one thing I've taken away from your videos is "how is this better than a train?". It's not my actual department at this time, but I hope that I can take that forward and make some change if I ever get into environmental policy or transportation infrastructure.

I like how the bus just bends at will whenever it goes around a corner. Theyre not even tight turns, but because its so wide, There's no way for it turn within a reasonable distance without just bending the whole cabin.

After watching this channel for a couple days, I am convinced that building trains will solve world-hunger.

An interesting idea for a Harry Potter story would be if after the war the victorios side immediately fractures between those who want status quo and those who want actual change for the better.

I'm pretty sure an automated light metro would cost just as much as this thing but actually work

You're breaking my heart with this masterworks sponsorship.

I couldn't imagine being under one of these straddling busses in a car. What if the bus makes a turn where you don't want to? Either be fast enough with stopping and halt the entire lane or just drive into the bus... how tf would that work out

11foot4 is all I'm saying. They also call it the *"can opener bridge".* Look it up. This straddling bus thing has only _half_ the clearance. Its nickname would be *"The Van Guillotine"* Upside: A brand new super entertaining youtube channel. They would need to install a couple rearward web cams at the factory and then they could use the proceeds to cover the repair costs caused by the constant van beheadings.

I was thinking about how buses are frequently not on time at bus stops - and hence they're unreliable - but then I realised if buses all had bus lanes, they would be on time unless the driver was rubbish or the company was rubbish.

About the Sprinter problem, I don't know how the situation is outside of Germany, but here the parcel service "park" their vehicles on the road, activate the hazard warning lights, and are leaving the car. Imagine this on a regular base, this "bus" will not be able to move forward at daytime!

My favourite part of the straddling bus is that in the promo videos for it, when it goes round a corner, the bus itself changes shape to fit the turn. There's no bellows type linkage that allows for movement, oh no, we have deformable metal walls!!

"What are you buying honey?" "FLESH!" That and the next sequence made me laugh out loud for a good while. Thank you Adam!

9:50 What even is this?! Why do we need that?!

I didn't understand the Harry Potter reference/comparison. Did he just criticize the that defeating Voldemort didn't solve all wizarding world problems and injustices and reasoned that as JK Rowling being "a centrist"? I genuinely cannot comprehend this.

me: having a good feeling that this video is going to be quite skeptical and well researched. "Let me introduce today's sponsor, Masterworks" me: oh

The Straddling bus is the first "Straddle-type bus". Its very Strand like in that sense.

My whole body clenches up in visceral terror at the thought of what would happen to this thing if one was running at peak traffic times, and an earthquake happened. Or if there was a car accident beneath one, or if a car turned wrong, jumped the rail, and slammed into one of the bus arms...

That thing on the Beach would colapse on itself, kill everyone benath and every passenger. That guy is a genius

I'm so happy to mentioned Dahir Insaat, the kings of solving one problem while unsolving fifty more. I recommend Retsupurae's videos on them, especially the drive-in supermarket and the artery bore

Dahir Insaat appears to be a company that does nothing but produce animated concepts for overcomplicated machinery, their weapons designs are especially egregious, actually engaging in warcrimes in their own videos. My personal guess is they're some kind of money laundering scheme, as they don't have any actual customers.

This is basically like two monorails joint together, but in a worse variant- intervening the ground traffic!

RIP businesses near these streets who rely on trucks and vans to get their goods delivered lol

They’ll sooner make long-ass water slides for getting around before they make trains 🤦‍♂️

It is odd when a channel that you respect does sponsorships like the one today.

Speaking of Harry Potter: In part 3 there is actually a magical traffic evading bus. That was probably even the inspiration for this abomination.

Any delivery driver (operating a van or truck) with even a modicum of experience looked at this concept and thought: "Do we even exist to these people?"