Vehicle: Bus: Shape
Crescent Bus   (+3, -2)  [vote for, against]
Crescent-shaped bus for malls or airports or large areas

Have you ever been on a bus/tram at the airport that picks up speed on a straightaway and then slams on the brakes because it has to make a turn, sending all the luggage flying to the front? Well, you no longer need to worry about getting smacked with flower-print carpet bags and fake-leather wheely-suitcases; the Crescent Bus is here! It's simply a bus that's somewhat rounded and only goes in a circle, around a parking lot or designated area.

The roads for the buses could be arranged in an overlapping sort of Venn-Diagram way, so if you have to go a long way you take one bus, get off halfway round, and the next bus comes only seconds later. Or it could be a complex Mickey-Mouse route setup. The possibilities are endless. Now the bus accellerates and moves quickly for a long time and then slows down, without the unnescessary fast-slow-fast-slow of the straight-curve-straight-curve of regular bus routes.

The bigger the parking lot, the less curved the bus is. Small parking lots have more severely-shaped buses, and buses could be manufactured for even the smallest parking lots.

A supply of Dramamine should be provided for the drivers and/or the passengers, if needed.
-- Abusementpark, Jan 07 2007

are you sure that you don't mean a croissant bus?
-- po, Jan 07 2007


And for Christian lands, the Cross Bus.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Jan 07 2007


Yeah, and don't forget the star of david bus. In fact, maybe there could be a bus in the shape of each religious symbol, and the atheist bus could be a big 'no' symbol (as in 'no smoking').

Oh, or better than venn diagrams, the roads could be laid out as a smith chart (use wiki to look up what a smith chart looks like...enjoy).

And the vomit bags (cause you'll need'em) could just be hoses between you and the person next to you.

Btw, abusement, just where do you buy your drugs?
-- garyspare2, Jun 20 2007


I don't understand why anyone thinks a bus going at a steady speed round a constant curve would be more vomit inducing than one going round variable curves at variable speeds. I'm quite certain it would be much less vomit inducing.

But it seems to me that simply re-arranging the route to have wider radius curves is all that's needed - and the bus can be the usual shape, with all the usual steering, although if the curves are all large radius, the steering doesn't need to be able to cope with tight bends. On the other hand, when you're going slowly just after starting from pick up or set down, or just before stopping for them, there's no harm in sharp bends at these points.
-- Cosh i Pi, Jun 21 2007


Bendy-buses already do this in London but they can turn in two wholey different independant directions. Heading adjustments can be made, via the manipulation by the driver upon a circular "steering" bar in the cockpit, both to the right, towards that side upon which the driver resides, and, conversely, to the drivers opposite side, vis a vis, the left. This allows them to navigate their way through an urban or rural environment, upon roads that are not *precisely* circular whilst retaining the ability to circumnavigate roundabouts and motorway slipways, circularly.
-- theleopard, Jun 21 2007


Did you just make that up?
-- wagster, Jun 21 2007


No, as hard to believe as it is, it's the truth. We've come a long way [wags].
-- theleopard, Jun 25 2007



random, halfbakery