Bus
A bus is a large wheeled vehicle meant to carry many passengers along with the bus driver. It is larger than a car or van, but smaller than the average rail transport. They are most often used for public transport, but they are also in use for charters, and some are privately owned. Although the average bus carries between 30 and 100 passengers, some buses can carry up to 300 passengers. The most common type is the single-deck rigid bus, with double-decker and articulated buses carrying more passengers, and midibuses and minibuses carrying less passengers. Coaches are used for long-distance services. Many types of buses, such as public transport buses, charge a fare. Other types, such as school buses or shuttle buses within a college or university campus, are free. In many jurisdictions, bus drivers require a special large vehicle licence above and beyond a regular driving license. There are many types of bus around the world, Buses primarily replaced horse-drawn omnibuses and stagecoaches in cities during the early to mid-20th century. They offered a more flexible, lower-cost alternative to rail, allowing for flexible routing and avoiding expensive track maintenance, marking a transition from fixed-track urban transit to rubber-tired transport.
Buses are an important part of public transport in places all over the world. Many people who do not have cars, especially in developing countries, use buses to get around. Buses make it easy for them to get to where they want to go. Buses have many uses, including transport inside towns or cities, transport between towns and cities, transport to schools and tourism. Some privately owned buses are used in political campaigns or to transport musicians.
The name “bus” is shorthand for Latin language omnibus, “for everyone”. The first omnibuses were horse-drawn coaches, and the name “omnibus” dates to 1823 in France, as a nickname for a service started by mill and spa owner Stanislas Baudry. Steam buses were used for a short time in the 1830s. The first motor-powered buses were made in 1895 in Germany, invented by Karl Benz.
There are many types of bus. For example: a single decker bus or a double decker bus.
A place where people wait for a local bus is called a bus stop. A building where people wait for a long-distance bus or where many buses meet is called a bus station.
Types of buses
Types of buses
Written for younger readers
Bus, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Public Transit
BUS JAKARTA Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a special kind of bus system. While ordinary bus systems operate with traffic, in a BRT public transit system, buses have separate lanes, large bus shelters that are like train stations, boarding platforms, and sometimes even priority at intersections. Bus rapid transit systems mix the benefits of usual bus routes and light rail.
Jakarta’s bus rapid transit system is the biggest in the world. Look at the first image in the gallery below. Instead of a little glass shelter, the passengers are waiting in a small station. The boarding platform is higher up than the street. The bus is in a lane of its own, separated from the traffic by concrete bumps. Look through the rest of the pictures in the gallery, then look at other BRT systems around the world. File:Jakarta Indonesia Bus-stop-Monumen-Nasional-01.jpg File:Transjakarta PKT 106 at Gambir.jpg File:MABI electric bus trial serving 6B TransJakarta.jpg File:MetroTrans Bus (TJ817) side view.jpg File:PPD 458, Transjakarta.jpg
Hong Kong Hong Kong doesn’t have a bus rapid transit system like Jakarta, just ordinary bus routes. But Hong Kong’s buses date back to the 1920s. There are more than 700 routes operating in Hong Kong today, and almost 6000 individual buses. Unusually, Hong Kong’s bus services are neither owned nor operated by the government. Instead, private companies control them. Hong Kong also has double-decker buses, which have two levels. There is usually a large window at the front of the top level for passengers to look out. Double-deckers take up the same space on the road as an ordinary bus, bus can hold twice as many passengers. They were first made in Paris, and are now used around the world.
Bogóta, the capital city of Colombia, has a large BRT system. Some of its buses, like the one pictured to the left, have three segments, allowing for even more passengers. The bendy joints are called “articulations”, therefore this type of bus is called a “double-articulated bus”, or, because of its unusual length, a “train-bus”.
Mexico City’s BRT system, called the Metrobús, has been very useful in reducing the city’s air pollution. The system helps reduces emissions of carbon dioxide by 36,000 tonnes – every year! The Metrobús has seven lines, which on weekdays usually carry more than a million passengers.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Bus” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
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