According to the BBC, China is the world’s biggest market for cars. In the mid-80s, the country only produced a few thousand cars, and hardly anyone had one. Now, it is the world’s largest producer of cars and the world’s largest consumer. Last year in China, 18 million vehicles were sold, over 5 million than in the US.

This trend might be good news to the automakers, but it also leads to quite a big downside: a massive rise in traffic. However, the ever expanding urban population needs to keep moving, so fortunately the Chinese government does have a solution. Building mega buses could be the way forward.

The 3D Fast Bus from the Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Company is an example of this solution. This huge prototype can carry up to 1,000 passengers, but its most innovative feature is its design. It skips traffic problems by straddling the road, allowing it to cruise over traffic congestion or allowing traffic to flow underneath it when it is stopped. Passengers ride in a cabin 5m above the ground, on wheels supported on streamlined stilts.

Designers of the 3D Fast Bus say the electric bus could reduce gridlocked traffic by up to 30% and cost only 10% of the price of an underground transportation system to build.