bus

bus¹

/bus/, n., pl. buses, busses, v., bused or bussed, busing or bussing.

n.

1. a large motor vehicle, having a long body, equipped with seats or benches for passengers, usually operating as part of a scheduled service; omnibus.

2. a similar horse-drawn vehicle.

3. a passenger automobile or airplane used in a manner resembling that of a bus.

4. any vehicle operated to transport children to school.

5. a low, movable filing cabinet.

6. Elect. Also called bus bar, busbar /bus"bahr'/. a heavy conductor, often made of copper in the shape of a bar, used to collect, carry, and distribute powerful electric currents, as those produced by generators.

7. Computers. a circuit that connects the CPU with other devices in a computer.

v.t.

8. to convey or transport by bus: to bus the tourists to another hotel.

9. to transport (pupils) to school by bus, esp. as a means of achieving racial integration.

v.i.

10. to travel on or by means of a bus: We bused to New York on a theater trip.

[1825-35; short for OMNIBUS; (def. 6) short for omnibus bar]

bus²

/bus/, v.i., v.t., bused or bussed, busing or bussing.

to work or act as a busboy or busgirl: She bused for her meals during her student days.

[1830-40; back formation from BUSBOY]

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I

Device on a computer's motherboard that provides a data path between the CPU and attached devices (keyboard, mouse, disk drives, video cards, etc.).

Like a vehicular bus that stops at designated stations to pick up or drop off riders, a computer bus receives a data signal from the CPU and drops it off at the appropriate device (for example, the contents of a file in RAM are sent, via the bus, to a disk drive to be stored permanently). Conversely, data signals from devices are sent back to the CPU. On a network, a bus provides the data path between the various computers and devices. See also USB.

II

Large motor vehicle designed to carry passengers usually along a fixed route according to a schedule.

The first gasoline-powered bus was built in Germany in 1895 and carried eight passengers. The first integral-frame bus was constructed in the early 1920s in the U.S. In the 1930s diesel engines were introduced, providing greater power and fuel efficiency to larger buses. With the development of highway systems, transcontinental bus lines became common in North America. Double-decked buses are used in some European cities; articulated buses pull trailers with flexible joints. Trolley buses, whose electric motors draw power from overhead wires, are now used mostly in European cities.

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▪ vehicle

Introduction

      any of a class of large, self-propelled, wheeled vehicles that are designed to carry passengers, generally on a fixed route. They were developed at the beginning of the 20th century to compete with streetcars (streetcar) by providing greater route flexibility. The bus was a natural outgrowth of the horse-driven coach. Today buses are defined as vehicles that accommodate more than 10 passengers.

Development

      In 1830 Sir Goldworthy Gurney (Gurney, Sir Goldsworthy) of Great Britain designed a large stagecoach driven by a steam engine that may have been the first motor-driven bus. In 1895 an eight-passenger omnibus, driven by a four-horsepower single-cylinder engine, was built in Germany. Early buses in the United States were operated by sightseeing companies in New York City. One type of these open vehicles built by Mack Trucks, Inc., in 1904 had a nominal seating capacity of 15 with a four-cylinder gasoline engine developing 36 horsepower at street speeds of up to 32 km (20 miles) per hour.

      Until the 1920s the technical history of the bus was that of the motor truck, because the early bus consisted of a bus body mounted on a truck chassis. The majority of present-day school buses are made in this way. In 1921 the first vehicle with a chassis specifically designed for bus service was made in the United States by Fageol Safety Coach Company of Oakland, Calif. The widened and lengthened frame was 30 cm (12 inches) lower than a truck frame. In 1926 Fageol developed the first integral-frame bus, with twin engines mounted amidships under the floor. The integral frame utilized the roof, floor, and sides of the bus as structural members.

      Other early bus manufacturers were Mack and Yellow Truck & Coach in the United States, both of which built gasoline-electric models. In these buses a gasoline engine drove a direct-current generator, and the output of the generator provided electrical power for the driving motors on the rear wheels. In 1928 transcontinental bus service was initiated in the United States. In 1931 the first rear engine in an integral-frame bus was introduced. Two-stroke-cycle diesel engines (diesel engine) were first used in buses in 1938 and are still found in most city and intercity models.

      Air suspensions were introduced in 1953 and continue to be employed on integral-frame bus models. They consist of multiple heavy rubber bellows, or air springs (air spring), mounted at each axle. The air springs are supplied with air from a reservoir in which the pressure is maintained at about 690 kilopascals (100 pounds per square inch). An advantage gained from this type of suspension is that, as the load increases or decreases, the level and height of the vehicle remain constant. This is accomplished by valves that increase pressure in the air spring. The increased unit pressure multiplied by a nearly constant area gives a greater load capacity.

      Unlike the leaf spring but like the coil spring, the air spring is capable of withstanding only vertical forces. Consequently, braking and cornering forces must be absorbed by radius rods. These are sets of links or arms with one end attached to the axle housing and the other end jointed to attach to the body.

Modern buses

      There are four main types of buses: city or transit, suburban, intercity or tour, and school. The city bus operates within the city limits and is characterized by low maximum speed, low-ride platform, provision for standing and wheelchair passengers, two entrances on the curb side, low-back seats, and no luggage space. The suburban bus is designed for short intercity runs and has high-back seats, luggage compartments and racks, and a single, front entrance. The intercity type has a high-ride platform to provide maximum luggage space under the passengers, high-back seats, overhead luggage racks, television monitors, individual reading light and ventilation controls, and a restroom. A typical intercity coach weighs about 12,000 kg (26,000 pounds), has a capacity of up to 47 passengers, a two-stroke-cycle V-8 diesel engine with up to 450 horsepower, an electronically controlled automatic transmission, and air brakes. School buses generally consist of a 50-passenger bus body, with special signal lamp and safety provisions, mounted on a long-wheelbase truck chassis. As fuel costs increased during the 1990s and 2000s, bus ridership increased in many urban regions around the world.

      Articulated buses were first used in Europe in the 1950s. In this arrangement a trailer body is connected to the rear of a conventional front-engine bus by means of a hitch, a flexible diaphragm, and a continuous floor panel with arcuate mating surfaces during turn maneuvers. This arrangement permits up to a 75 percent increase in seating capacity and a 20 percent improvement in fuel efficiency per seat-kilometre. The turning radius is the same as that of a conventional bus. Manufacture of this design was begun in the United States in the 1980s by several European firms. Double decking, increased seating comfort, and larger glass areas have been trends in tour buses, principally in Europe and Asia.

      A typical cross-country bus has been estimated to remove 17 cars from the highway and to achieve 69 passenger-km per litre (162 passenger-miles per gallon). Experimental hybrid-electric bus designs are being built, based on automobile practice. Intermodal transit systems with coordinated bus, train, and private car continue to be studied because of their efficiency and pollution reduction potential.

      New exhaust emission standards for buses went into effect in the United States in 2006 and 2007, requiring that smog-related emissions be reduced by 95 percent and soot by 90 percent relative to 2000 levels. The reductions have required a switch to reformulated diesel fuels with sulfur content capped at 15 parts per million.

Archie H. Easton George C. Cromer

Additional Reading

Susan Meikle Mandel, Stephen Peter Andrew, and Bernard Ross, A Historical Survey of Transit Buses in the United States (1990), is a good, though short, historical reference. David A. Hensher, Bus Transport: Economics, Policy and Planning (2007), examines the role of buses in contemporary urban environments. Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Great Britain), Automobile Division, Bus 2000: The Heart of City Centre Transport (2000), and papers from the 1997 Autotech Congress, Bus and Truck Technology (1997), contain brief discussions of technical issues related to bus and truck design. Masami Kojima, Breathing Clean: Considering the Switch to Natural Gas Buses (2001), examines the benefits of converting public transportation vehicles to run on natural gas.George C. Cromer

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