Bus Design for Accessibility

Inclusive Bus Design

For many years, buses have been designed to cater mostly, if not solely, to the needs of the average road user, who usually is a younger, physically and mentally competent traveler commuting to and from work. This is not the case anymore, as providing public transit accessibility for people with reduced mobility is legitimately enforced almost everywhere in the world.

The most important principle toward providing a bus experience that fulfills the criteria of inclusive design is to offer all necessary means of access so that a mobility-challenged user can easily enter and exit the vehicle. There are two types of gaps relevant to bus accessibility that need to be bridged so that even wheelchair users, who are the people facing the greatest barriers when accessing or alighting a bus, could be satisfied: (1) the vertical gap, which is the difference in height between the vehicle floor and the pavement at the bus stop, and (2) the horizontal gap, which is the horizontal distance between the edge of the pavement and the vehicle floor.

Conventional, or high-floor buses, can provide boarding-assisted access through use of wheelchair lifts. These elevating mechanisms have been employed in the past, but the considerable cost and the unreliability of their use made this choice unattractive for bus fleets, especially in Europe. Today, it is widely acknowledged that buses employing low-floor technologies could provide a more reliable and cost-effective accessibility answer and are the vehicles most appreciated in the current bus market.

The interior of a special bus designed to accommodate multiple disabled riders and wheelchairs seen near Prague's central Florenc bus station in the Czech Republic in April 2010.

Low-Floor and Kneeling Buses

A low-floor bus is a bus that, between the two doors (usually at the front and in the middle), has a vehicle floor sufficiently low and level enough to eliminate the requirement for steps in the aisle both between these doors and in the vicinity of the doors. In order to put this into context, one has to compare the key design specifications that define a low-floor bus with those of a traditional bus. The floor of a traditional bus is flat and continuous and is approximately 35 inches above the street. Access to the floor level is provided by stairs at both the front and rear doors. The floor height of a low-floor bus is approximately [Page 314]15 inches off the street between the front and rear doors. The floor area over the rear axle is raised, and access to this area is available either by steps or by a ramp in the floor.

...