In the first half of the 20th century, Detroit was one of the foremost hubs of industry and engineering in the United States. For decades, the Motor City manufactured millions of automobiles for drivers all over the world. Then, the energy crisis of the 1970s forced American automakers to scale back their operations, and the city fell on hard times. Since then, Detroit has struggled to curb an economic collapse that left the city in bankruptcy in 2013. City planners in Detroit have long identified a slow, fragmented public transit system as one of the chief obstacles to the city’s… Read more »
Long, tall buses might be ideal for carrying large groups of people, but they’re not known for having great visibility. Broad body panels can make it difficult for drivers to spot people and objects around the sides and rear ends of buses in particular. Large mirrors can help, but they often don’t completely eliminate blind spots. Thanks to mobile video surveillance and fleet management company Seon, however, blind spots in buses could soon be a thing of the past. Recently, Seon released the inView 360 Around Vehicle Monitoring (AVM) System which uses a series of four cameras to provide drivers… Read more »
Municipal bus systems in America aren’t known for being especially fast. They’re inexpensive and reliable, but if you need a fast mode of transport they’re typically not your best option. In any case, rapid is not an adjective most Americans would be likely to apply to their city’s buses. In other parts of the world however, bus transit is actually quite speedy. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems were first developed in Brazil, and have since been adopted in many other countries in South America, Europe and Asia. So what differentiates a BRT line from the bus transit systems we’re familiar… Read more »
The 66-year-old Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan is showing its age. Engineers in the city estimate that, due to structural concerns, the building will need to be torn down in about 20 years. Last year, Port Authority commissioners from New York and New Jersey met to decide on a design for a new terminal, but were unable to reach a consensus. Now they’re inviting anyone with an interest in architecture, engineering or transportation to come up with a viable plan for a new bus terminal. The winner of the competition will win a cool $1 million. While many… Read more »
Commuting by bus in Mexico City is not for the faint of heart. There are more than 1,000 bus routes that wind their way through the city’s meandering streets, many of which are more or less unofficial and established by popular demand. While a public transit agency does manage a select few rapid-bus lines in the city, the vast majority of the buses – upwards of 25,000 of them – are operated by private concessionaires. Routes change frequently as private bus owners seek out new passengers and take detours to avoid traffic. Unless you’re a long-time resident of Mexico City,… Read more »
Over the course of the past couple of years, a number of industry disruptors such as Uber and Lyft have forced public transit services to rethink their business strategies to keep ridership levels afloat. San Francisco, a city with a long history of innovation in public transit, is the latest municipality to update their business model for the 21st century. Back in January, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced that they would be partnering with mobile ticketing and payment platform GlobeSherpa to create a dedicated mobile app for ticket transactions. After months of planning and anticipation, the app… Read more »
Driverless vehicles are no longer a far-off dream of the future. In just a few months, autonomous buses will debut on the streets of Sion, Valais in Switzerland. The project is being spearheaded by the Swiss startup BestMile, who developed a dispatching system that allows them to monitor and control fleets of autonomous vehicles in real time from afar. Rather than devoting their energy and resources to developing privately owned autonomous vehicles, BestMile is committed to focusing on public transportation instead. The company is working in conjunction with a French manufacturer, Navya, to deploy autonomous buses in Switzerland by spring… Read more »
Ever wonder why school buses don’t have seat belts? You’re not alone. Currently, only six states require school buses to be outfitted with seat belts – a remarkably small figure that has troubled many parents and educators for years. After all, why wouldn’t there be some kind of legislation that requires such basic safety features in the vehicles that take millions of kids back and forth from school every day? It turns out the lack of seat belts on school buses was a function of their original design. For decades, school buses have been built with “compartmentalization” in mind. The… Read more »
With football season in full swing, superfans are posting up in stadium parking lots all across the country and showing their team spirit with some truly wild custom bus conversions. For these fans, tailgating is an essential component of the football experience. And to tailgate right, you’re going to need a pretty serious home base. That’s where the tailgate bus comes in. The Master Gator Because nothing says “tailgating” like a bus with a back porch. Some serious work went into converting this Ford B700 school bus into a rolling advertisement for the University of Florida’s football team. In addition… Read more »
