The O-Bahn (not the AutoBahn)

Adelaide has something called the O-Bahn.** -> the longest and fastest guided busway in the world, combining elements of both bus and rail systems. It's hard to describe, but basically it is a 12 km long, dedicated, concrete track for buses, separate from the normal roads. It winds through a scenic greenbelt that roughly follows the River Torrens into downtown Adelaide. It reminds me a bit of taking the GO Train downtown through the Don Valley (but without the homeless people camping out in the ravine), except, instead of a train on a track, it's a normal bus.


Each bus has special guide wheels near the front wheels that are connected to its steering mechanism, so when the bus drives into this special track, the track steers the bus, not the driver (like the streetcars in Toronto). But, since the bus has normal wheels, at the end of the track, the bus then can drives off the busway and continues on its route on normal roads like any other vehicle - so you don't have to transfer to another vehicle like you do with a subway or the GO train.
The buses can travel up to 100 km/hr, and the busway is capable of carrying 18,000 passengers an hour from downtown Adelaide to the suburbs in just 15 minutes.

It's neat. Toronto should think about something like this when it replaces the Scarborough RT line.

** I'm paraphrasing (and plagerizing) the O-Bahn brochure and Wikipedia