Because of the growing waistlines of many American bus passengers, the U.S. government may have to rewrite bus safety rules. The Federal Transit Authority (FTA) wants to raise the assumed average weight per bus passenger from 150 pounds to 175 pounds and add an extra quarter of a square foot of floor space per passenger. The agency says the proposals “acknowledge the expanding girth of the average passenger.”
If this becomes true, fewer people will be allowed on city transit buses across the country or force changes to bus designs. Patrick Scully, from N.Y.-based Daimler Buses North America, said engineers from his company were reviewing the proposals to see how they could alter design. “This change is really just a bow to reality,” added Joseph Schwieterman, from DePaul University in Chicago. “With no small number of bus passengers tipping the scale at 200 pounds or more, this is much more realistic.”
Current federal guidelines on average passenger weight are based on surveys in 1960-62 of what Americans weighed then. Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, the average weight is 194.7 pounds for men 20 and older and 164.7 pounds for women that age range. “FTA believes that 175 pounds is an appropriate average weight to assume for testing buses,” the agency says. The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees airline travel, gauges average passenger weight at 190 pounds in the summer and 195 pounds in the winter. The Coast Guard's assumed average weight is 185 pounds for boats and ferries since last December.
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