I’ve been reporting on the Trackless Tram innovation for several years now (pre-pandemic!). For this piece — How Trackless Tram could help revitalize city suburbs, published by the World Economic Forum — I worked with Professor Peter Newman, the foremost expert on this topic in the English speaking world. The piece went viral, as did the video that accompanies it.
This high-tech, autonomous tram, developed in China, rides like a train but doesn’t run on rails (i.e. it’s flexible and a lot cheaper to install). Everyone always asks me, well, isn’t that a bus? Read the article and tell me if this sounds like bus.
“Today, there is an urgent need to rethink how city transport works, due to congestion, emissions, and housing shortages. Cities everywhere need redevelopment to minimise long car-commutes and create more liveable cities and suburbs. The middle suburbs are particularly important in this respect, as they often have sparse and slow public transport – in many of these areas, trams were taken out and replaced with buses that can’t compete with cars.”