How do buses take on Wheelchairs?? 

“I know I’m Chinese, but I suck at Maths!” Definitely a LOL from me with that 🤣🤣

Since I use a wheelchair this topic is right in my wheelhouse! Thanks for covering it, James.

Great job as well. Don't forget when the lift get stuck in mid lift and the operator has to hand pump it up

Lift-u is big one for fixed route coaches . Gillig is a big user of them.

Fun fact: The NF D40 was also a "kneeling" bus. It used air bladders in lieu of suspension springs, like air-ride trucks. This allowed to go even closer to the ground. They owned the patent for their ramp (US #5,391,041, 1993) which is of extreme simplicity, and all others had to come up with more complicated ones. After that, even after the patents have lapsed, you have a situation where all the simpler ones have been patented, and if you develop a new one, it will either be more complex/expensive, or impossible to patent.

As someone who has been in the field of working with people with disabilities for 20+ years, I appreciate that you have approached this topic. There are other solutions. In smaller regional transit buses, the lifts typically filled up into the bus at the access door. That makes it more convenient and protects the lift better from the elements. I did not appreciate the MCI approach with having the ADA passenger sitting on a lower level than everyone else. I would feel like that segregate them from their group. Just my opinion. Thank you for sharing your content I appreciate it!

I do maintenance for a local transit authority and before I had this job I was a charter driver. Wheelchair lifts are a high fail item but we are pretty good at fixing them on the fly. I can only imagine how hard it might be trying to get one of those mobile mechanic services to come out and troubleshoot a wheelchair lift issue on a charter trip.

Little story. I worked for a transit city transit, we recieved 3 little transit units 30 footers. I came back from vacation only to be given #702 and after checking it out ramp would not work. Now this unit was driven about 7 weeks while I was on vacation. After about 4 days of it not working they gave me another unit. They called the manufacture to the property and it turned out that the floor was installed about an 1/8" off center and it was made by THOR. All 3 units were junk, Right after I retired they got rid of them. Spent 42 years driving for company.

I haven't had to use one in years, and just watched this a few days ago. I had to use one today, made sure it worked properly several times during pre trip, and all was good. go to load customer for return trip, and only deployed, no up and down. Thank god, our trainer years ago showed me how to use it manually, and I had to pump it up and down and it worked safely. Maby in a follow up can you demonstrate that and securing the chair on the bus? I just thank god our trainer was so thorough and detail orientated when he was showing me how to use it.

A bit tricky is definitely an understatement. So many issues to address. The lift design. The focus & time required by a trained person to load & operate then secure chair once inside. For the passenger the experience can be terrifying. They're on their own during the lift, exposed to the height & weather conditions. There needs to be a complete rethink of how this is addressed. I'd like to see the motor coach industry conduct a design competition, I'm sure there's some innovative ideas out there just waiting to be shared. Thanks for making this video.

I liked that you showed Coach USA in the video. My fathers gf lives in NYC and they service rural towns in PA. They have a farm near the Honesdale stop. I have also used them before.

I think the best compromise to all this is to have a small low floor section. The MCI D45 CRT LE does this brilliantly. It loses a few seats, but the simplicity of the wheelchair ramp makes it back up, making it really great for commuter operations. The D45 CRT LE is also a great suburban bus with really good ride quality, unlike wannabe suburban buses like the Nova LFS Suburban, which just lacks the rear door so it's a city transit bus that runs on longer routes, which is suboptimal.

In Brazil, since 2017, buses are required to have a door somewhere in the middle for this type of acces. The difference is that the bus has a conventional seat, located around the other passengers, and the whole seat goes down and to the right, the the person can be seated and buckled on the outside, than the seat goes back in and up to its original position. That way, people with disabilities kind of blend in with the other passengers, with just the person behind them losing a little bit of legroom. This is valid for coaches and school buses. For city buses, we use the ramps (on low floor buses or high floor BRTs operating on elevated platforms) or lifts for high floor buses overall.

Great video as usual, in the UK we have similar guidelines for wheelchair accessible buses and coaches (comes under the PSVAR & DDA compliant acts for all buses and coaches being used on bus routes & line runs) our requirements include the coach/bus needing to be fitted with front, side & rear destination signs too. Many coach operators love the likes of the Vanhool Astromega & Altano as well as the Plaxton Panorama & Elitei and the Caetano Boa Vista, as they too only require a separate ramp rather than having the lift which requires testing and certification every 6 months. For our other coaches some manufacturers have managed to do away with the separate door and wheelchair lift taking up locker space, and instead have increased the width of the main door and the lift stows away in the bottom step, such models of coach include the Caetano Levante series developed for National Express, as well as some Plaxton Elite & Panther models when spec’d accordingly.

Thanks for this informative video. As a wheelchair user it is disconcerting using some of the high lifts. I prefer riding the Van Hool double decker, however their ramps break periodically too.

My mom drove a school bus with a wheel chair lift for many years. They were just as clunky 20 years ago as they are now!

Ok, so another comment lol. "THe last thing you want is for the lift to malfunction", true, that is in the bad category, but there is a sitaution that's worse. When the lift fails...with the passenger, midway up. That needed the fire dept to come hoist her out of the chair, and then hoist the chair itself down, and then have the bus towed back to the garage. The lift would no longer budge. Later I found out that it was a binding issue, so bleeding the hydraulic fluid didnt help. I took the relief bus the mechanics brought, and my old bus was STILL where I left it about 2 hours later when I was on my return trip. Eventually they took half the lieft apart and threw it in the bays so they could drive the bus back (they did drive it back at least). As a sign of how long ago this was...a few months later I was driving another run, and this old woman with a walk wanted on the bus. The lifts are slow...very slow (at least back in early 2000s). So I asked her if it was ok to carry her up. She said sure, so I craddled her, carefully brought her aboard and sat her down, then got her walker. She was so happy. Can't say why, but I was young and strong, so it was 2 minutes versus 20 minutes (and you guys know, moving the seats forward on a D4000 can be a pain if the rails get gummed up with dirty and stuff from commuter runs!)

I love these videos. I have an idea for one. The oh so sexy left-side entrance door only seen in NY. This is what I know: as of 2017 it costs $9K to install (3K labor.) They are only done in one place and are required for government contracts. Sounds like a classic racket to me! I remember them well growing up in Brooklyn in the 80's. Thanks. Erik.

I know it took years to work out wheelchair ramps which are a great idea for all involved and hope goes on the sound is good all other countrys are different and some are wierd also sml like ambulances in coaches

I think a low-floor motorcoach could be made that still has decent luggage space. But you’d need to cleverly design around the limitations. I think a smaller engine would help (like a LiquidPiston engine), acting as a generator to power an electric-hybrid drivetrain. Tons of space saved right there!

James My Buses Are Easy Access. They Have Ramps At The Front Of The Buses So When Someone Is In A Wheelchair. We Just Pull The Ramp Out Then Back In After 😃. We Have Low Floor Easy Access Buses In Australia 😃

working! D45 cRT is a commuter coach. Commuter coaches really don't need luggage space beneath the coach because passengers are commuting to and from work These buses weren't intended for long distance travel or for airpirt transfers. They can be used for local charters such as sightseeing, dinner transfers, or outings to sports events. But it's main purpose is as a commuter or line run .

James you did it again! Wow! How do you come up with such interesting topics? It must take you 10+ hours to build these videos. You have been in the industry for 15 years? That must be half your life! Thanks for being a positive spokesperson for the industry and Peoria Charter.

Electric wheel chair lift is not only expensive, but also very prone to malfunction. Or even they malfunction more frequent than a wheel chair user using the bus. That's why many low floor city bus has switched to manual folded ramp. Some bus company simply provide special vans for wheel chair users.

How Ironic since I myself now need a wheelchair. Especially when getting in and out of O'hare airport. But back in the days before the ADA was even on someone's mind. I had a female passenger getting in Iowa City, Iowa. I turned my back towards her, she wrapped her arms around me. And i carried her on and off the bus onto her waiting wheelchair. Greyhound had buses for the Madden coach, Shriner's, and even the Harlem Globetrotter's. But not the handicapped.

Ha, I just saw a Bee Line, Westchester Co bus and it was a glorious Orion V...full high floor lol. It shocked me that it was still running, and more importanly, it was in very good shape. Also, love the Flexi video you shot. Its one of my favorite buses, and the old Grummans had that distincitve turbo sound...3057 I think is owned ny NJT still, but its part of their historic fleet (the NJ tag with QQ at the end denotes a historic reg)

The wheels on the bus go round and round Round and round Round and round The wheels on the bus go round and round All through the town

In my large regional city in Australia, the transit buses load from the front and, when needed for access for a wheelchair, or even an elderly person like me, the driver lowers the front suspension so that the floor "kneels" to kerb level. When inside there is open space for wheelchairs, mobility scooters to be parked. These areas also have fold-down seats.

I once had a Van Hool with the Ricon lift in the rear. I was parked by the Lincoln Memorial in DC. I was doing an "Honor Flight" run. I was on the back side of the square. Since DC has strict idle laws I turned the coach off with the life down. Well some pissy cop from the US Park police started screaming at the group leader who was at the top step telling him to move the bus. Now I had a bus full of WW II Vets most were in their 90's. She was still being pushy and I asked for a supervisor. Her Sgt came up and I explained what was going on and he told her to take a hike. Of the 3 buses I had the only lift. When we finally got everyone back on board I tried to start the coach and i got a WC warning the engine didn't even kick over.. I was thinking it had something to do with the bathroom. I called the VH help line and explained what was going on and he told me the WC was for wheelchair. What I had to do was shift the hydraulic valves to manual and pump the lift by hand. Once it reached the top I shifted the valved back to normal operation. I got behind the wheel and the engine kicked right over. I was told later on it does that to prevent the lift from running with the engine off as to not drain the batteries.

NJTransit has gone to some trouble to avoid buying low-floor busses, even having high-floor busses built just for them. They are still doing this, their last city bus contract was high-floor.

Really cool video. Now flixbus needs to watch this video to know how their own wheelchair lifts work!

My bus is the only ADA bus in the fleet and I make sure I take good care of the system when you have a rotating bus system your drivers don't care about each individual bus and are really rough on the system. Another thing about having your own bus when it comes to ADA buses is it allows the driver to get to know the quirks of his or her bus and that way they are more confident when things go wrong and it looks better on the driver and the company. While I understand that personally assigned buses come with their fair share of issues, I believe the tradeoff is massive in terms of driver satisfaction, maintenance requirements, and just more of an attitude of wanting to protect their bus and ensure it always looks the best.

I had to use a coach lift once. It was unsettling being that high! I would hate being in one of those buses with the pit.

I’ve driven motorcoaches and city buses. I miss the days of high floor city buses, ride quality was far better, and I personally preferred driving them. That being said, when I switched to motorcoach (we operated both interchangeably), I hated the Braun’s on our D4500’s. You listed most of my gripes. I (and the boss) were ecstatic when MCI released the low centre cubicle. The ramps on the low floors were a great improvement. Now I don’t mind by any means transporting passengers that require them (though I was blessed to have requiring passengers only on my low floor), but boy I hated those pieces of junk. Never mind the poor passenger sitting out on this rickety gangplank in the weather. And I’m not sure of your company policy, but we could pull luggage trailers if necessary on charters. Nothing was more amusing than seeing the poor staff trying to stuff luggage in the trunk of the Astromega (that marketing person needs a raise). Lowers bus to where luggage is supposed to be, moves luggage to where engine is supposed to be.

Great video James I learned a lot. In my driving days 1970 - 1990 the ADA law was non existent and when it was passed in 1990 the company had closed its doors I did feel sorry for handicap people. I remember twice myself and the baggage handler carried passengers on board and put their wheel chairs under the bus. I can see a lot of bad problems for the driver if it breaks down on a trip. There should be some overrides in place. I have seen videos of European coaches with a ramp in the center at ground level but they also lose some seats. Thanks for the video it was educational.

During one of my first trips with GH, I had a wheelchair lift jam inside the bus in DC. The rear ramp that allowed a wheelchair to roll onto/off the bus was getting caught on the top of the storage bin, causing the lift to be unable to deploy. It wouldn't have been as bad if the wheelchair wasn't already on the bus and needed to get off! I ended up having to call a tech to have to come down to the station and with the help of about 4 other guys, we had to lift the wheelchair (and person) out of the bus by hand.

James you are absolutely and totally spot on about the extreme annoyance of the wheelchair lift alarms🚨 going off while trying to upload a wheelchair. I’ve been in a situation where a fellow driver and handicap person just altogether gave up because of the piercing alarm and lift not operating because of uneven ground. In that case we all simply to wait and swap to another Bus. You probably already know but I’ll mention it anyways about the motorcoach wheelchair lift industry; Braun Wheelchair lift company bought out Ricon Wheelchair lift company. However as I understand it now Braun is continuing to use the original Ricon type designs for the motorcoach industry while affixing the new Braun parent company name on the products.

Hi James. Another great video on a very important topic, thanks so much! That video really made me thinking... I believe I have never seen a german motorcoach ("Reisebus") with a wheelchair-lift. Those flat ramps are common here on regional buses and on almost all trains (short and longdistance)... but on motorcoaches? Now I have to look out for them ;)

The double decker low floor coaches have loads of luggage space as the entire lower floor from the rear axel to the engine compartment is free (that is where the door behind the rear wheels acceses) Also these coaches are available with a "back pack" luggage compartment that sits behind the engine compartment although the maintence guys hate them, as it blocks the engine access doors.

I should clarify your statement to say MOST transit agencies use low floors. Some agencies (including new jersey transit and sound transit - seattle area primarily pierce to King County) have mci buses. Thought I'd clarify that.

Seen those fancy new D45 CRT LEs in NYC. They seem to be perfect for the interborough services where luggage space is not an issue. Sharp looking bus.

Great video James! Agree with you on all points. It seems like just one compromise after another, and I have yet to see a good solution for everything.

There used to be a lift called a "Wayne inboard " in school busses. Not sure if the make them anymore, they were very common in California in the 70's thru the 90's. We have MCI and Prevost coaches with lifts in them. I am an ada driver and have been a trainer on ada busses. I prefer the Mirage lifts on the Prevost H3-45. I like doing tours with wheelchair bound seniors. Most don't, it's a sad fact a lot of drivers consider it too much additional work.

Hello James Happy Sunday How are you doing today I am so happy that I am in Special Olympics State Games this year on June24th until June26th it will take place at Ithaca College in Ithaca New York in Tompkins County TCAT Public transportation is going electric buses Enjoy your weekend James

what we need is flying wheel chairs.

It's great to see more options for wheelchair users. Had a friend who needed a powerchair, whenever he traveled, he had to go by personal van. It would have been awesome to have reliable commuter service like what is shown at the end. Keep up the great work!

Great topic, James!

Half of Highfloor GO Bus can lift a Wheelchair and Carry Two Wheelchair . And Double Decker lowfloor can carry two Wheelchair. Also New Double Decker Lowfloor had new Seating options.

I've had wheelchair lifts stop either half up or down on me since I have a powerchair. It makes hard to get off or on the bus 🚌 several times they had to 911

Well informed video James, thanks!

Great Video!!

I’ve had issues with the sensor for the upper door on an X345 not recognizing a closed door. I have had to repeatedly slam the door in order for the brakes to release.

Hi ,great channel (both) having watched this show I thought you would like to see how the United kingdom coaches carry disabled passengers. Here the disabled lift is built into the front stairs on motorcoachs ,thus you don't loose out on luggage space ,I will try and put a video of one working.

Great job buddy

That was a good video! I learn a lot from your videos! :)

Back in1979 our state public transit system purchased a fleet of Grumman Flexible busses with the front kneeling setup for ADA passengers. Upon kneeling the system would not return to normal height, locking the service brakes putting the bus out of service.

I've never driven coaches but I did drive transit bus. We had some of the same complaints as you guys about the lifts and ramps. Especially that damn beeping when deploying the ramp/lift. I had a lift get stuck on me on a gillig phantom once. I got the passenger off but couldn't stow the lift. Found out something bent inside the lift. When my boss and the mechanics got there, they gave me a spare bus and sound up having to disconnect the safety stuff and drive the bus back to the garage with the lift stuck out.

Hi James I just found your videos recently I am not really into busses more so cars and video production which you can probably tell from my cannel but I find your videos verry comforting. It is cool seeing these busses in depth because when I am going to a track or cross country meet I ride these busses all of the time. keep it up man and also where are you based out of not to be creepy or anything lol just curios but I love what you do! :)

Lift-U was another company until they went under in 2019

In my market, 1 company dominates, and farms out work to most of the smaller companies. Is it like this everywhere? Still don't know how they get all the work or what language is in the contracts. They don't seem to do as many leisure and tourism trips as the smaller companies, though. Maybe a new video idea?

Hi James. I assume when you said the first low floor bus was received by the Port Authority of NY and NJ (PANYNJ for short), that it was an airport shuttle bus, as the PANYNJ operates all 3 New York area airports (JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty Int'l). Also, apologies if you already did a video on this, but an idea for a future video might be why buses and motor coaches don't have a "Park" position on automatic transmissions (usually only Neutral and the emergency / parking brake), and the air brakes.

In Singapore they didn't have wheelchair accessible city buses until 2006. Not sure about private motorcoaches though. It is clear they had 0 access to wheelchair accessible buses in the 1990s unlike the US. I have been in the US long enough to know that Flxible buses did have wheelchair lifts. "I know I am chinese but still suck at math" same here.

Nice

Don't know about legality or practically but it sounds like you need a baggage trailer on the ada lift busses.

Damn I miss driving for CoachUSA I miss NY🤦🏿😞

Thanks for posting James. I really enjoy your informative videos.(-;

I’ve had to use a coach more than once and each time I’ve had to use the lift they did not work. That is very frustrating when needing to use a coach for some reason.

James, Very interesting video. Also you loose 6 seats for every wheelchair. Does a lift in an MCI J4500, Reduce the lav size.???

I wonder why in the United States they don't simply copy what some British coaches have is a door mounted Wheelchair lift. That configuration is seen on Transit buses MTA NYS RTS NJ Transit 2007-2014 NABI 416s

Never had 1 wheelchair passenger in all the years I've been driving. Wheelchair dash light stays on every bus I've ever driven though. 😁

very nice and informative video as usual thanks James, I hope someday you can make a video talking about Asian bus manufacturers (such as: Daewoo, Yutong, Kia/Hyundai, Kinglong, Golden Dragon etc.) thank you (oh can you give me a shout out if ever you make that video? thank you)

How much would it cost for a Bus operator with badly beeping lifts to carry some hearing protection for Operator and ADA-Passenger on every ADA-Bus and give small business cards to every one of them with contact information of the manufacturer to call about the nuisance?

some coaches have lifts built into the stairs

We have all low floor buses at Disney

ive gotten those guys with the hopped up scooters not wheelchairs and the lift just wont go up

Some School Buses have a the same method as a coach

I would have thought that most charter companies wouldn't want or need every bus to be accommodating to the wheelchair bound, but only because I imagine not every charter has a need for such accommodations. Yes, it's great to have a couple of coaches (or seven) on hand for those tours that do, but I'm guessing more often than not, you don't need one. What kind of numbers do you see, James? Is there a trend up or down of the number of tours that require such a coach?

Electric transit buses vid next episode?🤞🏽🤞🏼

13:05 so is the ADA passenger stuck in the lower area, unable to interact with the other passengers in the high floor section?

3:00 ... and baggage storage

Probably don't need a lift on every bus. Bus company should ask ahead of time if any passenger requires one. And this raises another question. Are the bathrooms on the lift buses wheel chair accessible? I bet no one has ever asked that question!!!

Put the mobility Bond ADA left on top of the motor coach. Just like granny Beverly hillbillies.

1988 the D 40 NFS was introduced in 1988 Dover the first low floor in a white America that actually worked

You did leave out Lift-u they are a major player in the transit industry

I remember images of Dutch SM'90 trains where the wheelchair lift is folded into a side panel near the normal doors, (m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q91xJ_QyWAE.html) , using basically the same amount of space as a wheelchair lift near the engine compartment, but with the climate control of one inside of the luggage space. I wonder if something like that would work. Also what I do find interesting is that wheelchair spaces always use a seperate entrance. You'd think that there'd be a design which utilizes the normal middle door. Why not make it so that the staircase for example curves to the rear of the bus and have a lift that enables wheelchairs to move near the front, using a side mounted lift as in the video I linked (this is probably not really understandable but I dunno how to describe my idea better haha.)

Zazur rollerblade 🛼🛼⛸️

Zazur king 🤴

Love your videos, but my wife has applied x 2 and has not heard back from Hr as of yet ? Could you help with this?

Zazur cab 🚕

🚌

Zazur wheelchair 🦼

Luccisano

im a young person and im bad alot with technology

I was injured today by being attacked on bus and the bus driver in owen sound caused my walker to be be trapped under ramp and injured me he also allowed other passenger who was violent screaming abuse and she made threats and she committed assault battery also thr french company that owns the buses and the drivers in owen sound are a danger

Zazur zach 👨🏻

Zazur iPhone 📱

These physically disabled people have the same need and right to travel on a bus , that is why . How many YEARS ago , they blocked public buses , because they had NO capacity to take on people in wheelchairs . I'm sure after that , public transit systems incorporated buses with lifts for wheelchairs .

Felicidades, es un buen ejemplo. 150 sentadillas son unos X18TINDER.Uno muchas y un buen ejercicio. Se deja ver que hay muy buenos resultados 😍👍 Saludos desde la Cd.. de world 🌹😉💖 los mortalesa abian apreciado tan hermosa mujer.k