Thinking about design

Published: Sep 7, 2014 by C.S. Rhymes

I was following a bus the other day and it was so slow. It started me thinking about the design of a bus and how could it be imporved with modern technology. Some of the problems with buses include:

• They are slow
• They are wide
• They are long
• They have to keep stopping and starting
• Oh, did I mention they are slow…

The dimesions (width and length) make buses slow as they can’t turn corners too fast, which is also not helped by the fact they are tall. They are also slow as they have to keep starting and stopping, but this is esasabated by the fact they only have two doors and the fact people have to wait for people to get off before others can get on. Then the people have to pay and the driver give them their change.

So how can modern technology and new design resolve these issues?

Lets start with the size of a bus. Buses have to be big to carry lots of people, but they need to carry lots of people as they are slow and can’t get there and back quick enough. How about we make the bus smaller, lower and narrower, but so that it can still carry a reasonable amount of people. This will make the bus have a lower centre of gravity so it can go round corners faster.

Buses have to keep stopping to pick people up which also slows it down and annoys road users, so why don’t we make it so it only goes from one place to another without picking people up on the way.

Perfect. So what we need is a bus that is smaller, narrower, with a lower centre of gravity, but can still carry a decent amount of people and only goes where you want it to and not keep stopping.

Then it dawned on me… what I had designed was a taxi. :(