China may have us beat with mass transit innovations. Earlier this week, a 300 passenger 72 ft long ‘straddling bus’ that operates above traffic of smaller vehicles was tested. Just look at the lounge-like cabin, imagine a CTA bus like that? Are we looking at our transit future or we going to deal with more announcements like “[BING! BONG!] We are currently experiencing signal traffic ahead…” on our next Blue Line ride to O’Hare? These questions can only be answered with time. Kudos to the designers for this clever idea that could legitimately make life easier in packed cities around the world.

– Kevin