Buses Of The Future

Boris Johnson, now Mayor of London, premised much of his 2008 campaign on the reinstatement of a bus. Johnson argued, using his rival Ken Livington’s own words from a decade before, that “only a ghastly, dehumanised moron would get rid of the Routemaster,” London’s famous double-decker bus. If he were elected, the candidate promised, he would reverse his rival’s decision in 2005 to replace the Routemasters with articulated “bendy-buses” Londoners had come to love to hate.

Indeed, one of Johnson’s first acts as mayor was the constitution of a bus design competition which encouraged independent designers to consider how a new Routemaster would look and feel. The winners - architects Foster and Partners and carmaker Aston Martin - developed a brilliant concept for a new double-decker bus that would radically redefine how customers get around London.

The vehicle, while modeled in form on the iconic Routemaster, would be technologically advanced. The glazed roof would be covered with solar panels to help power the bus. On each side would be large LED signs providing customers detailed information about the route and its destinations. Finally, access would be provided not only by the open rear door that made the Routemasters famous, but also by a central handicap-accessible door. For the comfort of passengers, the seats would be covered in leather and the floors in wood. The bus remains a concept, but London will soon commission the next generation of double deckers with the ideas generated by the competition in mind.

All over the world, in fact, the bus is being reinvented. Far from the sturdy but utilitarian mainstay with little of the romance of streetcars or the luxury of private automobiles, several new bus models are some of the most fascinating and technologically advanced vehicles in the world right now.

In the United States, bus rapid transit (BRT) has become all the rage, New Flyer and North American Bus Industries has developed extended-length buses with flat floors and high passenger capacity. These systems have allowed cities like Los Angeles and Cleveland to implement bus rapid transit systems that provide many of the advantages of light rail at only a fraction of the construction cost. Unfortunately, neither of these cities’ BRT networks are especially ambitious, consisting of little more than glorified bus lines with dedicated lanes, pre-paid fares, prettier stations, and gussied-up vehicles.

On the other hand, Las Vegas’s Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) line, opened in 2004, incorporates some features that truly differentiate it from the crowd. Using Irisbus Civis vehicles, MAX includes an optical guidance system that takes over from the driver at stations, parks the bus very close to elevated platforms, and allows people in wheelchairs to roll right on - without the irritating bus kneeling and ramp-sliding used on regular buses and which inevitably delays commutes. Las Vegas’ buses are also particularly impressive because they have four side doors, compared to the usual two, meaning that boarding congestion is nonexistent.

Meanwhile, two French cities have taken the concept of the bus to never-before-seen levels. In Caen and Nancy, “trams on tires” run on the pavement while aligned to a central track that keeps the vehicles in their lanes and allows faster speeds. These “buses” are virtually indistinguishable from rail-riding trams, as the vehicles are several car-lengths long and rely on electric overhead catenaries for power.

The Translohr system, which is in use in China, Italy and France, takes the concept even further, allowing “buses” of up to six cabs in length. They’re also bi-directional, with a driver’s cab at both ends of the vehicle.

Most radical of all is the dual mode vehicle being designed by Japan Rail Hokkaido and Toyota. This bus - which in the design stage remains more than a bit clumsy looking - has the ability to run on both pavement and traditional railways, because it has retractable steel wheels below its chassis. The advantage? This road-ready vehicle is four times as efficient as a diesel bus because it can glide along steel tracks between cities even as it can access the center of towns on their streets.

As LightRailNow puts it, though, how different are these advanced buses from the light rail systems that would otherwise be built in their place? With construction costs that are roughly similar to streetcar systems, the “buses” used in Nancy are an engineering nightmare and have had frequent maintenance problems.

Even so, the future is bright for bus technology with so much creativity and invention on the part of manufacturers. It won’t be long before the daily commute is more convenient, comfortable, and quick, even for those on the bus.