Overweight Americans throwing off safety of city buses

[The Straight Story]

Overweight Americans throwing off safety of city buses

It's official: The federal government says more overweight Americans are squeezing onto buses, and it may have to rewrite bus safety rules because of it.

The Federal Transit Authority (FTA) proposes raising the assumed average weight per bus passenger from 150 pounds to 175 pounds, which could mean that across the country, fewer people will be allowed on a city transit bus.

The transit authority, which regulates how much weight a bus can carry, also proposes adding an additional quarter of a square foot of floor space per passenger. The changes are being sought "to acknowledge the expanding girth of the average passenger," the agency says.

"This change is really just a bow to reality," says Joseph Schwieterman, who studies bus ridership as director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University in Chicago. "With no small number of bus passengers tipping the scale at 200 pounds or more, this is much more realistic."



http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-03-21-busweight21_ST_N.htm

[City of Mills]

1. Finally some good news

They can talk about passenger girth all they want; I'm all for increasing seat size and personal space on buses.

[madokie]

2. Let me see the old school bus I had to drive while in the service

was rated for 62 passenger, IIRC, so now they need to remove a few seats and spread the others out to take up that newly freed space.
Problem solved. :-) :hi:

edit to add: 'for instance'

[JackintheGreen]

3. Having travelled extensively on buses in India

This is for me a big yawn. I don't car HOW fat Americans get, I have never been on a bus in the US that approached Indian buses for discomfort. Honestly, the only form of mass transit I've been on that is even close (and closer every day) are airplanes. Airplanes are close to Indian buses, and that's saying something.

[rfranklin]

4. and Indian buses are very, very safe...

msnbc.com news services
Dozens of children dead as bus crashes in India
Vehicle plunges off bridge into canal as students went to school for exams

updated 4/16/2008 12:02:47 PM ET

BAMROLI, India— A bus veered off a bridge
and plunged into a canal in western India on
Wednesday, killing at least 44 children and
three adults, police said.

Rescuers pulled four surviving children from
the 20-foot deep canal but several bodies
remained missing.

The accident occurred in Vadodara, about 55
miles southwest of Ahmedabad, Gujarat's
main city.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24152385/#

At least 25 dead in bus crash in India
JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Share this on:Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon LinkedIn July 23, 2010|From Mukhtar Ahmad, CNN
At least 25 people were feared dead Friday in a dramatic hillside bus crash in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Two others survived after they were able to jump clear.

The bus rolled off a main road in hilly Kishtwar district, took a steep fall and then was swept away by strong currents in the rain-swollen Chenab River, the district magistrate, G.R. Bhagat, told CNN.

Two passengers escaped with minor injuries by jumping out of the tumbling bus, Bhagat said.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-23/world/india.bus.crash_1_bus-crash-jammu-and-kashmir-minor-injuries_s=PM:WORLD

India bus crash kills 29Bus carrying guests returning from wedding plunges into reservoir


Share Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 December 2010 07.24 GMT Article historyA bus carrying wedding guests has plunged into a reservoir, killing 29 people in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. At least five people swam to safety.

The bus veered off the road and fell into the deep waters of the reservoir late yesterday, said Ramesh Babu, a police official in Mysore, near the site of the accident.

Five people who swam ashore were taken to hospital, Babu said. Villagers and police recovered 29 bodies, including those of 25 women and children, and divers were still searching the reservoir.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/15/india-bus-crash-reservoir

[JackintheGreen]

5. You don't have to tell me

I've lived there the better part of the last three years. But what your articles miss is why most buses crash in India. It isn't because they are overloaded - though that is certainly contributory in some cases - but rather because the road system in the vast majority of the country is completely inadequate.

[eilen]

6. Reads like a bridge safety issue to me. nt

[JackintheGreen]

7. I could tell you stories about bridge safety

but as I absolutely must get writing now I'll just leave off my personal experiences with "YIKES!"

[WatsonT]

8. Maybe they should walk instead