Double-decker bus gives Stanford commuters a fresh perspective

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Double-decker-bus-gives-Stanford-commuters-a-6099835.php

The bus of the future rolled through Fremont on Tuesday, giving everybody a majestic view of Fremont.

“It’s not Hawaii out there,” said passenger Kristin Goldthorp, sitting on the top deck of AC Transit’s new double-decker bus as the roof grazed another low-hanging tree branch, because the world, except perhaps for London, is not entirely familiar with double-decker buses.

“Thwap,” went the top of the bus as it smacked the tree at Fremont Boulevard and Mowry Avenue. “Thwap, thwap.”

Goldthorp, like the other five dozen passengers aboard the Enviro 500 Urban Commuter bus, was an urban commuter. She was heading to work in Palo Alto. A new double-decker bus is exciting, to a point, and she reached that point about five blocks into the 54-minute trip.

edit: Works for me. Doubles capacity with the same number of vehicles and operators.

[nxylas]

1. I think Enviro 500s are the most common type of bus here in Bristol

Of course, we've had double-decker buses for about a century.

[happyslug]

2. Pittsburgh tried double decker streetcar between 1912 and 1924

http://www.brooklineconnection.com/history/Facts/PghTrolley.html

The problem was, first they could NOT go through the South Hills Trolley tunnel, thus anything to the South Hills or Mount Washington was out. Even the route up Arlington Avenue was out, for it ran over Mount Washington, but ended up at South Hills Junction and the Trolley Tunnel. Thus about 1/4 of the streetcar routes could NOT use the double decker. The Oakland (University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University, Carlow Collage area) to downtown Pittsburgh (The third and second busiest transit stops in Pennsylvania, behind only #1 downtown Philadelphia) would have been ideal, but most of the commuters on that line wanted FREQUENT service not packed service. Given you had THREE main streetcar lines in the area (and various sub-routes off those lines, all of which survive to this day as bus routes) going along three different roads (Forbes, Firth and Center) a double decker made less sense then more streetcars.

Even today, frequent service is the rule between Oakland and Downtown Pittsburgh. The Firth and Forbes Avenue routes now use an exclusive bus lane, but diverge in Oakland. You have to watch yourself on that bus lane, the buses come that often. The Center Avenue routes run on about the same route as the old Center Avenue Streetcars, but they want frequent service NOT packed service.