Why don't buses ride well?

[davislove]

I've always been curious, why don't buses have a good ride? Surely the first priority is the comfort / safety of passengers. Granted there's huge weight involved but with the speeds so low it can't be that expensive to engineer??

p.s I found out in thailand they don't handle too bad! Had the terrifying experience of riding on a derestricted coach, at night in the rain with the driver locking up and putting the thing on the limit in the twisty stuff - I kid you not

Edited by davislove on Thursday 21st April 11:38

[kambites]

My guess would be that it's because they have to handle such a huge variation in load weight.

[Twincam16]

I can't work this out either. I'm not convinced they're particularly safe either - people standing, exposed metal everywhere, no seatbelts and the ride is awful. Reading on a bus with give you double-vision and you'll stab yourself in the leg attempting to do a crossword.

What I don't get is the fact that by comparison trains are very smooth and comfortable.

[markh1]

I try to avoid the looser cruiser at all costs but if the tube is buggered and they have to be used...

....Why do all the bloody drivers treat the accelerator and brake pedal as an on/off switch!!! That is more annoying than the ride comfort!

[otolith]

My guess would be that buses don't ride well because the comfort of the people who use them is not a big priority for the people who buy them.

Twincam16 said:

What I don't get is the fact that by comparison trains are very smooth and comfortable.

Now just take a moment and think about what you did there...

[snotrag]

I did my industrial placement designing buses.

Theres a few reasons I dont reckon they ride too well -

- The need to cope with hugely changing loads/weights

- They have to be lightweight (a big issue) so the chassis are probably not as stiff as they could be ( hence suspension doesnt work optimally)

- They often have short wheelbases in comparison for the length - buses with wheels in front of driver have better ride but worse turning circle.

- Particularly on buses with cabs in front of wheels (for turning circle) all the weight is in the wrong place - engine is behind the rear axle just like a 911 and the steering box and all sorts of other mechanical stuff is in front of the front axle.

- They drive mainly along suburban/urban routes littered with speedbumps, holes, roadworks, dead cyclists, stupid bus lane chicanes etc etc... your 12.53 to Kiings cross travels along a hardened steel track perectly layed and balanced, alinged by lasers, barely any incline etc. Not really a fair comparison!

[Twincam16]

otolith said:

My guess would be that buses don't ride well because the comfort of the people who use them is not a big priority for the people who buy them.

Twincam16 said:

What I don't get is the fact that by comparison trains are very smooth and comfortable.

Now just take a moment and think about what you did there...

I know what you're getting at, constantly level rails etc, but the point is, smoothness has always been a primary pursuit in train design. I remember the old '60s rattletraps still being used in the '80s, and refinement has been improved ever since. However, with buses, with the exception of improved wheelchair access I can't think of any area that has been concertedly 'improved'. Refinement (or for that matter safety) doesn't seem to have been on the bus design agenda at all. If you ran a modern bus through the same crash tests as a modern car I reckon it'd fail miserably.

[kambites]

Twincam16 said:

I know what you're getting at, constantly level rails etc, but the point is, smoothness has always been a primary pursuit in train design. I remember the old '60s rattletraps still being used in the '80s, and refinement has been improved ever since. However, with buses, with the exception of improved wheelchair access I can't think of any area that has been concertedly 'improved'. Refinement (or for that matter safety) doesn't seem to have been on the bus design agenda at all. If you ran a modern bus through the same crash tests as a modern car I reckon it'd fail miserably.

I don't know, but I suspect that fuel economy has been a pretty major focus.

[Torquey]

I always put it down to wound up, tired, pissed off drivers trying there best to get others in the same state of mind.

I honestly don't believe it's always the bus and not driver.

[gareth.e]

markh1 said:

I try to avoid the looser cruiser at all costs but if the tube is buggered and they have to be used...

....Why do all the bloody drivers treat the accelerator and brake pedal as an on/off switch!!! That is more annoying than the ride comfort!

I've noticed this too.. They are either planting throttle or slamming the brakes on.

[Gruber]

In London, poor ride is largely due to driver incompetence IME. As a passenger, there's a huge difference between those who concentrate on making smooth progress and those who appear to drive with lead boots - hard on the brakes and then hard on the accelerator, while their passengers are hurled around in the back.

It wasn't so bad in the good old days of Routemasters, where they couldn't go very fast and had rubbish brakes. Took a little longer to get places, but at least you didn't feel seasick at the end.

Grumble grumble grumble.

[davislove]

gareth.e said:

markh1 said:

I try to avoid the looser cruiser at all costs but if the tube is buggered and they have to be used...

....Why do all the bloody drivers treat the accelerator and brake pedal as an on/off switch!!! That is more annoying than the ride comfort!

I've noticed this too.. They are either planting throttle or slamming the brakes on.

the guy I rode with in thailand was blipping the throttle aryton senna stylee in the bends!!

[WeirdNeville]

This is pistonheads. Wtf were you doing on a bus??

Only kidding.

I'm fairly convinced that all the busses I ride on have completely shot suspension. Listen to them on a bumpy road and the clattering and banging you hear from major sounding suspension components is criminal.

[Ozzie Osmond]

kambites said:

My guess would be that it's because they have to handle such a huge variation in load weight.

Yup, although body roll with a soft suspension could rapidly prove unpopular with passengers!

[marksx]

Because they are sh*t?

[GTR Cook]

My guess would be the drivers have no idea what smooth driving is......

[jake15919]

After a couple of days driving a bus I am sure the only fun you get is launching your passengers up and down the bus with random panic braking/ drag strip acceleration.

[Twincam16]

WeirdNeville said:

This is pistonheads. Wtf were you doing on a bus??

Only kidding.

I'm fairly convinced that all the busses I ride on have completely shot suspension. Listen to them on a bumpy road and the clattering and banging you hear from major sounding suspension components is criminal.

I was absolutely spannered so I was probably asking for it taking a 'nightbus' (the alternative, a taxi, would've cost £30+), but I was on a bus once where one of the windows was in the process of falling out of its frame. Vibrations from the engine seemed to have rattled the top of the window free, and there was a gap big enough to get your fingers into.

[Dyl]

davislove said:

gareth.e said:

markh1 said:

I try to avoid the looser cruiser at all costs but if the tube is buggered and they have to be used...

....Why do all the bloody drivers treat the accelerator and brake pedal as an on/off switch!!! That is more annoying than the ride comfort!

I've noticed this too.. They are either planting throttle or slamming the brakes on.

the guy I rode with in thailand was blipping the throttle aryton senna stylee in the bends!!

Possibly a necessity if it had a crash 'box. I first learned about double declutching from the driver of our school bus It was an old coach from the early 80s (this was only ~6 years ago) similar to this. It either had a manual gearbox with no synchromeshes, or they were broken. Used to take ages to find the next gear but he still managed to be very smooth.