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 »
England’s Capital city has long been known for its iconic red double-decker buses, and in 2012 the fleet began undergoing a serious facelift. Over the course of the past three years, London has been phasing in its “New Routemaster” buses that boast a hybrid diesel-electric design and improved comfort and accessibility features. The buses’ striking good looks come courtesy of acclaimed English designer Thomas Heatherwick. Alright, so the New Routemasters sure do look good, but they haven’t been without their issues. Their hybrid engines have been criticized for being inefficient And some Londoners have even questioned the safety of the… Read more »
Since Google’s driverless cars hit the streets of California in 2012, autonomous vehicles have become a hot topic of discussion in the automotive market. Veteran automakers such as Ford and Nissan have since joined the race to bring the first driverless car to the consumer market. By some estimates, we might see these futuristic vehicles in dealership showrooms by 2020. In spite of the media buzz surrounding driverless cars, we haven’t heard much about the possibility of deploying similar technology on city buses until recently. On the one hand, this makes sense. Buses are large and cumbersome and have to… Read more »
No, that wasn’t a typo. A Tokyo-based company is now offering luxury bus tours throughout the country for $1200 a pop. And get this: that’s the economy package. A longer three day trip can cost you upwards of $2500. Granted, that price does include the cost of your meals and a stay in a hotel, but we suspect these expenses account for a pretty small portion of the total ticket price. The passenger compartments of the buses are based on the first class sections of airplanes. With plush leather interiors, flat screen seatback TV’s and more legroom than you can… Read more »
In recent years, environmentally minded engineers have begun experimenting with a variety of different fuel sources in an attempt to find a viable alternative to crude oil. From vegetable oil to natural gas to lithium-ion batteries, conscientious gearheads have begun experimenting with all sorts of different fuel sources over the course of the past decade or so. The latest of these experiments comes to us courtesy of Reading Buses in the UK, who have made a bus that runs on nothing but cow excrement. Strictly speaking it runs on biomethane fuel derived from cow manure, but let’s not get bogged… Read more »
Vacation season is a prime opportunity for transit services to cash in on large groups of travelers in need of reliable transport options. With the peak travel months of summer in full swing, there’s no better time to start thinking about making a new addition to your fleet. We’ve had a great round of highway coaches hit our lot this year, and they’re all tuned-up and ready to roll. All of these buses come to us courtesy of industry-leading manufacturers such as MCI and VanHool. Take a look at this 1999 MCI EL3, for example. It looks great on… Read more »
Honolulu has a homelessness problem, and state officials are tackling it in an unconventional and extremely resourceful way. With the help of architecture firm Group 70 International, the state plans to retrofit a fleet of retired city buses and deploy them as roving homeless shelters throughout Honolulu. Each bus will serve a different purpose; one will house showers, while another will provide sleeping quarters for the homeless population in the city. The buses will require extensive renovations in order to convert them from transit vehicles to comfortable living spaces. They are all in good working order, but have been retired… Read more »
Until recently, American city dwellers have been fairly limited in their choice of mass transit options. Public bus lines typically constitute the cheapest but least flexible option, while private cab companies offer a straight shot to your destination, but at a higher premium. In some cities rail lines supplement bus service, but commuter trains are subject to many of the same scheduling headaches as public bus lines. Over the course of the past decade, however, a new generation of entrepreneurs has been shaking up American public transit by serving patrons with small fleets of vehicles that satisfy niches long… Read more »
