🚀 go-pugleaf

George Johansen (johansen@portal.ca) wrote:


: I understand when you say you "feel" more exposed.  It certainly looks
: like that.  However the data does not support that conclusion, and these
: "new" busses are not in fact new.  They have been in service in Victoria
: for several years already, and in major metropolitan service all over
: North America as well.  There is no data that supports increased mortality
: or injury on this design.

These buses are STILL below the normal height of a car. That should be 
some concern in an accident. Unfortunately we tend to wait until a 
serious accident has occured and somebody has been killed or injured 
before realizing a basic mistake which testing does not always pick up. 
The lift chairs at Whistler?? were considered tested and safe, until 
somebody was actually killed. Now the chairs have been or will be replaced.

: > Ed> 2) There is no leg room for those of us with long legs.
: > 
: > Buses are typically designed to maximize useful seating, and providing
: > room for the outlying longer legged people would reduce the number of
: > seats, and thus the carrying capacity.  My knees often rub on the seat
: > in front of me too, but you've always got the option of standing.

: I have the same problem on every bus and Skytrain too.  If I weren't
: driving the bus, I would chose to stand or sit in the side facing seats.

This is still no excuse for decreasing the leg space in the design. I am
short (5.1'), and even I always get cramped for leg space on the new
buses. I have a 45 minute ride to work twice a day, and believe me,
experiencing this leg cramping for and hour and a half every day is not
too thrilling. Also, people with leg circulation problems could experience
damage and lack of blood flow. We are not talking about the discomfort
of a small group of tall people. This is about the comfort of everybody.
Actually, I thought these new buses were actually a little bigger. I heard
that some routes on the North Shore were unable to take these buses
because they were wider than the old ones, and there is not enough room in
the lane, especially around the mountains. Apparently the roads have to be
widened or something... 

: > Ed> 3) There is much less seating in the new bus than on the old ones.

: I counted, and there are 2 less seats in the low floor.  The standard New
: Flyer D40 in the Vancouver configuration has 39 seats.  The Low Florr (if
: I remember correctly) has 37.  Derek pointed out that this is due to the
: wheel wells in front now occupy space.  That can be good or bad.  As a
: driver, I do not miss the "chatter box" seat on the front right hand side
: of the bus.  The closest seat is now almost 5 feet away.

Except that with the new buses, a single wheelchair rider requires that 4 
seats be abandoned to accommodate the wheelchair. On the old buses, I 
think it was 2 seats.

I think it would be nice if BC transit consulted the riders on their
choice of new buses. Have people rate and vote for a particular bus before
buying a whole fleet and discovering problems afterwards. I presume that
people using these buses in Victoria, and in the other major transit areas
in North America have the same problems that have been discussed here.
Also, the previous buses with wheelchair lifts were STILL pretty new! What
happened to the? 

Suzan Zagar  (szagar@unixg.ubc.ca)