A public transportation vehicle generally includes an engine, a suspension system and chassis and a body which includes a passenger compartment. The manufacturers of passenger compartments for the public transportation vehicles typically design and build the compartments based on a known common standard design as seen in buses, trains and passenger airplanes which are currently in use.
For example, buses may have different classes based on their length, number of axles, number of stories or decks (e.g., double-decker buses), and having pivoting joints (e.g., articulated buses). Various bus classes include, single-decker, 2 axles, 12.5 meters long buses; single-decker or double-decker, 3 axles, 15 meters long buses; single-decker, 3 axles, 18 meters long articulated buses (typically used for urban transportation); and single-decker, 4 axles, 25 meters long articulated buses (typically used for urban transportation).
In addition, various standards are applied on manufacturing buses for example the maximum height of 4 meters, and maximum width of 2.6 meters which may not be violated. Some other less strict restrictions include maximum net and gross weights of the vehicle, maximum weight on each axle, minimum engine power and maximum length of the vehicle.
The two axle buses may have a maximum length of 12.5 meters. The weight of recent two axle buses is 18 to 19 tons which includes 4 tons for total weight of passengers and cargo. The engine power of these buses is usually 420 horsepower while their older generation had 260 horsepower and 16 tons maximum weight.
Double-decker buses should have three axles because the total weight of the vehicle is drastically higher than single-deckers and reaches to 27 tons. The length of the double-deckers may also increase by 15 meters. However, the number and popularity of this type of bus is decreasing.
The most common buses in the world are single-decker buses which mostly have two axles and some have three axles. For longer buses with lengths around 18 to 25 meters the number of axles need to be increased and for lengths above 15 meters articulating joints need to be added. Due to accessibility and lower cost, buses are still one of the most common transportation means in the world. However, passenger comfort during bus travels has not received as much attention as other transportation vehicles such as trains or airplanes have received. For example, buses typically lack sleep facilities such as flat beds.
In recent years commonly used buses have been equipped with facilities, some above expectation, such as close to perfect air conditioning, heat, seamless double pane windows, comfortable seats, pleasant environment, higher safety features, and various other features for passenger and driver comfort. However, in long distance travels the above features do not sufficiently provide passenger comfort.
The current bus compartment arrangements cause discomfort to passengers in long distance trips. After about an hour of sitting still in a limited space without moving the body starts to get tired and painful and as a result this tiredness may cause short term and sometimes long term physical and mental distress to the passenger. The narrow space between the seats does not allow the passenger to move and enjoy the trip. For this reason, people may be reluctant to travel by bus unless they have no other travel means available to them.
Some efforts for manufacturing more comfortable bus compartments have led to manufacturing of ceremonial buses which include beds and other furniture. However, such vehicles have very low capacity and can hold at most a handful of people such as members of a family and therefore are not suitable for commercial use. Some other bus compartments include only beds in two or three decks or half the compartment includes seats and the other half includes beds. These bus compartments, however, still have limited capacity for commercial transportation and therefore have not attracted interest.
Yet, other types of buses having beds have been manufactured which include narrow beds in two or three decks where there are no cabins separating beds and no privacy is provided. In recent years bus compartments similar to train compartments have been introduced where the central hallway is omitted and therefore no contact between bus driver and passengers exist. This compartment includes five cabins each having 8 passenger capacity where each cabin has a folding door and the cargo is place at the end of the bus. In addition, various VIP buses are introduced which are similar to ordinary busses with more space between seats and as a result lower capacity. The VIP buses include classes 32 passenger buses and special 24 passenger buses having a foot rest for each passenger.
Efforts for providing a more comfortable bus compartment may include manufacturing double-decker buses. However, manufacturing cost and maintenance cost of a double-decker bus may increase by 50 percent compared to the single-decker busses. In addition, increased height of double-decker buses and lower heights of the hallways inside these buses may cause limitations. For these reasons double-decker buses are not popular. Long buses with lengths higher than the regular 12.5 meters may need extra axles and to be articulated and these additional features may cause increase in manufacturing costs. Moreover, various technical issues such as turning in narrow roads decrease popularity of such buses.
VIP buses have recently attracted attention. The VIP buses have the same length as the ordinary 12.5 meter long buses with half or a third of the capacity of ordinary buses. The reduced capacity causes increase in passenger fees and ticket prices. Classis VIP busses include 34 seats and no beds. The seats provide more comfort than ordinary buses with each row having 3 seats two on one side and one on the other side. Special VIP buses include 22 to 26 seats, which is almost half the capacity of an ordinary bus. However, amidst the reduced capacity no beds are provided in special VIP buses. Each seat has a foot rest and can be reclined to provide a resting position for the passenger. However, the passenger cannot turn on the seat and the reclined seat may cause distress to other passengers in the behind.
The foregoing issues are not limited to buses and exits in other forms for transportations. For example, airplanes are typically designed with cylinder shapes. The airplane bodies may have geometric shapes such as oval egg shapes. Components and compartments of the airplane can be affected by the oval shape. For example, doors, windows, ceiling and floor may be semi-circular, narrow and caved. Since the airplane floor is in the shape of a half oval, the passenger seats may be curved backward and passenger leg positions may be inconvenient. The cylinders are in the full package like a puzzle. Various features can be introduced to save space for passenger convenience. In current airplane designs due to the cylinder shape of the airplane seats are inconvenient, entering and exiting the seats is hard, a passenger is not able to stand upright above their seat, and other issues and problems also arise from the cylinder shape of the airplane body.
Some other issues with currently used public transportation vehicles include lack of storage boxes, lack of monitors or small and not-fixed monitors behind the front seat which move with reclining of the front seat and restriction of sounds to earphones due to lack of separate and private cabins for each passenger.
Hence, a need exist for transportation vehicles (e.g., buses) providing more comfort and more space for passengers without reducing the total capacity of the transportation vehicles.