It looks rather like a futuristic stretch limousine, but its actual function is rather more populist: the Superbus is a novel public transport system being developed in the Netherlands by the Delft University of Technology. It is an electric bus designed to be able to switch seamlessly between ordinary roads and dedicated "supertracks", on which it can reach speeds of 250kph (155mph). It could thus present an alternative to much more expensive magneticlevitation trains.
　　Though it is as wide and long as a standard city bus, the Superbus is only 1.7 meters high, or roughly the same height as a sports utility vehicle. Joris Melkert, the project's manager, explains that the designers managed to keep the Superbus this small by doing away with the central aisle usually found in today's buses, a vestigial design feature that allows passengers to stand upright, but also gives conventional buses the aerodynamic profile of a brick.
　　The low riding Superbus, in contrast, has a separate door for each of its 30 odd seats. The low ceiling and the use of lightweight materials make for a far more streamlined vehicle, which in turn requires only a modest electric motor: though engineers have not yet decided whether the Superbus will be powered by fuel cells or batteries, they estimate that it will be able to accelerate from rest to 100kph in a leisurely 36 seconds.
　　The individual doors also allow for rapid loading and unloading of passengers, which will need to be fast if the Superbus is to live up to its promised doortodoor mission: instead of making predetermined stops, the vehicle will pick up and drop off passengers based on their textmessaged requests. This kind of flexibility is a central tenet of the project; the estimated three year lifespan of a Superbus (as opposed to thirteen years for a standard European bus) will also allow the latest technologies to be phased in quickly as they become available.
　　To start with, that might include satellitebased tracking to keep the Superbus on course, sensors to scan the road for obstacles up to 300 meters ahead and a smart suspension system that remembers the rough spots in the road.
　　Some detractors have suggested that making so many stops would erode the Superbus's speed advantage, and others question whether a new cog in the Netherlands' already intricate transport infrastructure is even needed. Furthermore, the Superbus does not yet exist, whereas maglev trains are already operating successfully in Shanghai.
　　The future of the project is uncertain. Its intended route, a new transport link connecting Amsterdam with the northern city of Groningen, was recently scrapped by the Dutch government (although the Superbus was deemed the most feasible of all the options considered, which also included a maglev train). In spite of the setback, the project has since received an extra 7m ($9m) in government funding, plus 1m from Connexxion, a local bus company. The Superbus team's latest plan is to unveil a fully functional prototype at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. With its combination of low emissions, high speed and snazzy design, this might prove to be a bus that is.

　　乍看之下超级巴士更像一辆未来派风格的加长型豪华轿车，但是它实际的作用却更加平易近人：这辆超级巴士是荷兰代夫特理工大学开发的新一代公共交通系统。这是一种能够在普通路面和专用“超级车道”间平稳过渡的电动巴士，在“超级车道”上时速可达250公里（相当于155英里）。这样，它或许能够成为替代价格昂贵的磁悬浮列车的另一种选择途径。
　　尽管超级巴士车身的长与宽同标准的城市巴士没什么两样，但是它的高度只有1.7米，差不多是一辆运动型多功能车的高度。项目负责人Joris Melkert解释说，设计者们去掉了现有巴士里常有的中间过道的设计，从而使得超级巴士体积非常小巧。尽管中间过道的设计给乘客提供了站立的空间，但是因为砖类外形上也同样给普通巴士带来了空气动力学的包袱。
　　相比之下，低底盘的超级巴士为车上30个单人座各配备了一个车门。低车顶和轻质材料令车身更符合流线型，这样的汽车对电力发动机的要求不高：虽然工程师们还没有决定是让超级巴士采用燃料电池还是蓄电池，但他们估计该汽车静止加速到时速100公里仅仅需要36秒。
　　单独的车门设计便于快速上下客，因为这对于实现许诺的“门对门”服务是必不可少的：汽车会根据乘客提供的文本消息的命令决定上下客，而不需要事先设定车站。这种灵活性体现了这一项目的主要原则；据估计一辆超级巴士的使用寿命是3年（与此相对应，一辆标准的欧洲巴士的使用寿命达13年），这使得各种最新的技术一旦成型便可以迅速投入使用。
　　超级巴士在启动加速前会采用一系列技术手段：卫星跟踪技术追踪行驶中的超级巴士、传感器扫描巴士前方300米内的障碍物以及智能悬浮减震系统记录路面上起伏颠簸的地点。
　　一些批评者认为，停靠的站点过多会抵消超级巴士高速度的优势，另一些反对者质疑荷兰本已错综复杂的基础交通系统是否需要这个新“玩意”。此外，超级巴士还未存在，而磁悬浮列车已在上海成功服役了。
　　该项目的前景还难以预料。最近，荷兰政府驳回了该项目计划建设的一条连接阿姆斯特丹同北部城市格罗宁根的交通线（虽然人们认为超级巴士是包括磁悬浮列车在内的所有备选方案中最具可行性的）。尽管遭受挫败，但那之后该项目同时获得了政府提供的700万欧元（900万美元）的额外资助和一家当地巴士公司Connexxion提供的100万欧元。超级巴士研究小组的近期打算是在2008年北京奥运会上向公众展示一款功能完备的原型。由于超级巴士集低排放、高速度和超时尚设计于一身，它或许能够被证明是一款值得人们翘首以待的巴士。