| ▲ | bell-cot 19 hours ago |
| Call me a fossil, but double-decker busses just seem so much cooler. Without all the added engineering complexity, costs, and footprint. |
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| ▲ | Aachen 19 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Boarding times though? I agree of course about the cool factor and I was sure to ride one when visiting London, but afaik the slower (dis)embarking times are why double-decked trains are primarily used on intercity trains and not on commuter/local trains or light rail (metro etc.). Typical busses stopping every two minutes are probably similar Edit: wait, I know one in Germany as well. It's expensive but between Frankfurt airport and another major city, there is a rail line but somehow the bus is significantly faster and they're using double deckers. The front row at the top was, n=3, always free for me (all four seats) so you get a quite unique experience, at least so far as my bus experiences in mainland western Europe go :) |
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| ▲ | bell-cot 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Boarding times though? Often true. OTOH, the reduced footprint (vs. either 1 articulated or 2 normal busses) can speeds things up, especially on cramped and congested city streets. And if you're getting near gridlock-level congestion, the length of the articulated busses can be like dumping gravel into your system's gearbox. | | |
| ▲ | TeMPOraL 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | True. While I love our articulated buses in Kraków, if one of these stops mid-turn on an intersection, it blocks 3 out of 4 movement directions. | |
| ▲ | kergonath 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | These issues are solved with dedicated bus lanes, which are desirable even for double deckers. |
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| ▲ | dominotw 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Boarding times though? cant they just put another entry door? | | |
| ▲ | adrianmonk 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | You can, but it's easier to evade fares. The driver can enforce fares better at the door near them. My local transit agency just stopped allowing rear door boarding, and that was one of the main reasons: https://waypointblog.com/capmetro-is-ending-rear-door-boardi... | | |
| ▲ | TuxPowered 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The goal of public transportation is to move people fast around the city. Not to have the driver sell the tickets, that’s what the ticket machine is for (both on stations and on board). Anybody using public transportation daily probably has a monthly ticket anyway. And not to provide tourist information. People want to get to work on time after all. Entering and leaving the tram or bus through all door is a simple way to improve public transports reliability. | |
| ▲ | dominotw 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | maybe i dont understand how articulated bus makes boarding faster. If anything it makes it slower compared to double decker . | | |
| ▲ | gavinsyancey 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Because they're longer, you can fit more doors on the side. If you allow all-door boarding, it's faster. | |
| ▲ | TuxPowered 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Double deckers I’ve seen have just one narrow staircase. You can’t have people go up and down at the same time. Through a door you can move some people in and out at the same time, however it’s rude, but since it’s a door and not a lengthy corridor, you can easily have a group of people go out, let new passengers in, and get in again. |
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| ▲ | anewhnaccount2 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The original designs had boarding at the back. Don't even have to stop people can just leap on. |
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| ▲ | kergonath 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You have different footprint issues. And a lot of cities seem to have been doing ok with the engineering bit for what, 60 years now? Double-deckers are cool, I’ll grant you that. And a very nice way to visit a city. But they are far, far less efficient in terms of capacity. |
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| ▲ | hagbard_c 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| How about articulated double-decker buses? The one does not need to exclude the other after all. It'd need a large harmonica to deal with hills and bumps or it could have separated top floors with sloping roofs. |
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