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Admin
Administrator
USA
1662 Posts |
 Posted - 01/02/2001 : 2:21:08 PM
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| How do you park a large fleet of 150 buses, in a limited, enclosed area, while being cognisant of the a.m., departure and p.m., return times. is it even possible? thank you for your expertise and experience. |
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tcre27
Active Member
10 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2001 : 10:03:28 AM
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When it becomes neseccary to park all of our fleet's buses we use a herring bone system.
ex:
\\\\\\\\\PATHWAY FOR BUSES
////////////
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PATHWAY FOR BUSES
\\\\\\\\\Slanting them at about a 45 degree angle allows tight parking and less space to pull buses in and out. All buses have to be pointed in the same direction.
Edited by - tcre27 on 01/10/2001 10:04:10 AM
Edited by - tcre27 on 01/10/2001 10:05:15 AM |
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John Farr
Top Member
USA
642 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2001 : 09:20:40 AM
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As suggested, a herringbone/chevron layout gets the most buses into a small area. Use care in measuring the distance of the aisle, so buses have sufficient room to maneuver. Also, the greater the angle, the fewer buses will fit per linear foot (but a narrower aisle). Assuming a 12 foot wide bus parking stall, I forget the exact measurement, but you will need to allow something like 15 feet of frontal space when the bus is on a 45 degree angle. (The front measurement is the hypoteneuse of the triangle, for those who remember your high school math).
Do not mix big and little buses in the same aisle. Should be all big or all little, if possible - to take full advantage of the aisle width.
I suggest getting an accurate diagram of your lot and placing various templates on it to see how everything fits. If you have a dirt lot, construction supply firms sell "feathers," which are brightly-colored plastic strands attached to a large nail. Just pound them into the gravel with a heavy mallet. Do not hold the nail - like I did - while Mr. Magoo takes a swing. Feathers do a good job of marking spaces.
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B. Busguy33
Top Member
USA
3444 Posts |
Posted - 01/19/2001 : 6:43:53 PM
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If you are parking a lot of buses in a relatively small location, usually the buses that leave the bus lot first are parked in front of the ones that leave later or after the other buses. The buses that need to get out earlier are parked so they can get out easily, while the ones that go out later are parked behind the ones that leave earlier so by the time the earliest buses leave, the buses that leave later will have no problem leaving the bus lot.
The parking arrangement that I have seen is either buses parked in rows (the buses that leave the earliest are parked in the first row or in front of the buses that are parked in the second row or behind the buses that leave the earliest) or the parking arrangement of the buses surrounds the bus each side of the bus lot with the middle part left empty so the buses can leave when they need to.
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cowlitzcoach
Advanced Member
USA
325 Posts |
Posted - 02/03/2001 : 11:15:30 AM
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Problems like these are the proverbial 5 gallons into a 3 gallon pail--no matter how you do it, the answer is not ever going to be perfect.
Having said that, one must first start by thinking outside of the box. Meaning throw away any ideas about the way it has been done in the past so you can start fresh. The final solution may incorporate stuff you have used before but limiting yourself to what you have done before can doom your iniative to failure.
Many transit operations park their buses in lines with the first bus back at the front of the line and the last bus in at the back of the line. The next day, the first bus out is the bus at the head of the line. This precludes one driver driving one bus every day.
A variation on that theme would be the first bus in backs into the back of the line allowing the last bus in to be in the front of the line. That way in the morning the first bus out would be the last bus in the night before.
The downside of parking in lines is it becomes difficult to use a specific bus at any given time.
Parking herringbone style allows the greatest number of buses in the smallest amount of space if you don't want to or can't stack park the buses.
Sometimes rearranging the lot itself by moving gates, lightpoles, etc. can free up space to allow a different arrangement to allow more parking.
I am assuming what has happened is your fleet has grown and your lot has not grown. One issue that is often forgotten when the issue of parking buses is addressed is where are all of the drivers going to park their POV's. That can become a major problem with the neighborhood if drivers start to park up and down the neighborhood streets.
It is bad enough having buses starting up and going in and out at all hours. It is even worse if part of that movement includes a driver slamming a car door under a neighbor's bedroom window at dark-thirty in the morning.
Mark O.
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Parking a fleet in a limited area
