SEATING MANAGEMENT - CITY & BUS RAPID TRANSPORT BUSES

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to seating arrangement in city buses & buses used for rapid transport. More specifically relates to the seats & the mechanism which aids in having a flexible seating arrangement inside the bus & thereby maximizing the space utilization inside the bus.

PRIOR ART AND PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

With the rise in urbanization and increased reliance of people on the public transportation there is ever increasing demand for the same. While there are different modes ranging from the feeder buses, city buses, trolley buses, trams & metro trains, the city buses are the most common mode though and it's true in every part of the world. Inside a city the routes are such that the distance between two stops are minimal, so is the journey time and hence passengers commuting between a limited number of stops usually don't sit & tend to stand. Therefore a city bus is designed such that it accommodates more standee passengers when compared to buses of other types. With more space for standee and less number of seats, city buses have higher passenger carrying capacity.

Despite having higher passenger carrying capacity, the city buses tend to get over crowded at peak operating times. The bus operators tend to increase the number of buses to distribute the crowd but only to some extent it. Increasing the number of buses to cater to the crowd only at peak operating times is not viable as these buses would run too empty at normal operating time. Being a passenger carrying vehicle the passenger capacity is defined by the floor space, which is confined based on the length & width of the bus. Of the floor space, only the gangway is utilized for standee passengers, the rest of the area is occupied by seats. One way of further increasing the floor space is to remove the seats but this is not advisable. The present day buses have rigid seats mounted to the floor i.e. seats permanently fastened to floor. It would be ideal to have seats which are flexible enough to be collapsed only during peak operating times to enhance the floor space for standee passengers & later retract at normal operation. Therefore in light of above discussion, there is a need to develop a mechanism which caters to the above problem.

OBJECT OF INVENTION

The principle object of the design is to design a seating system for a city bus which is capable of accommodating seated passengers & has in addition floor space to accommodate fair number of standee passengers at normal operating condition. The same system under peak operating condition should be capable of enhancing the floor space to accommodate abundant number of standee passengers. Yet another object of the invention is to design a tip-up or foldable seats which unlike the conventional ones are capable of being moved forward or backward in the saloon.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The present invention, which achieves the objectives as quoted above relates to seating system inside the saloon of the bus which unlike the conventional arrangement uses tip-up or foldable seats mounted on to the side walls instead of the rigid seats mounted on to the floor of the bus. The tip-up seats are designed such that they can be opened only when required & springs back to folded position by default. Replacing the conventional rigid seats with tip-up seats enhances the floor space to some extent & thereby proportionately increasing the standee passenger carrying capacity. In order to further enhance the floor space, these tip-up seats are mounted on a rail in the side wall which run across the length of the bus. The seats are capable of sliding along the rails. When the bus is at peak operating condition the seats are folded up & pushed along the rail to one end of the bus. This enhances the floor space significantly thereby providing more room for standee passengers & eventually increasing the overall passenger carrying capacity of the bus.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The advantages & the features of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG 1 depicts the tip up seat in opened up or seated condition

FIG 2 shows the seat in the default or closed condition

FIG 3 shows the seat after being closed & pivoted

FIG 4 show the seating arrangement in a city bus in normal operating condition

FIG 5 shows the arrangement in a city bus in peak operating condition

FIG 6 show the seating arrangement in a BRT bus in normal operating condition

FIG 7 shows the arrangement in a BRT bus in peak operating condition

FIG 8 shows a closer view of the pivoting and sliding mechanism at the end of the seat assembly

FIG 9 shows a detailed view of the sliding mechanism with the rollers

FIG 10 shows a detailed view of the slide locking mechanism

FIG 11 shows a detailed view of the swivel locking mechanism

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed herein is the construction with which the subject invention is obtained. This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which, like reference numerals indicate corresponding parts in the various figures. In place of the conventional seats that are rigid in their arrangement, the bus under the present invention is fitted with the designed tip-up seat as shown in FIG 1. Though tip-up seats are already available the designed tip-up seats are different from them & is briefly explained in the flowing potions. The tip-up seats comprises of a squab (1) and cushion [2), the squab (1) always remains in a vertically aligned orientation whereas the cushion (2) by default remains vertically aligned resting along the squab [2) but can be pivoted perpendicular to the squab to align in horizontal orientation thereby enabling the passenger to be sit over it. The cushion (2) is spring loaded & hence springs back to the vertical position by default when no one is seated. The earlier said is the case with a conventional tip-up seats and are installed on the side walls of the bus with the squab parallel to it. The designed tip-up seats have an sliding & pivoting mechanism (3) integrated with it & the tip-up seats are installed perpendicular to the side walls (4) of the bus. The same seat is installed on a normal city bus & also on a bus used in a BRT system or Bus Rapid Transit system.

FIG 4 illustrates the installation of these tip-up seats on a city bus whist being operated in a normal operating condition with limited passengers i.e. with seated passengers & some standee passengers on the standee space (5). The same bus whist being used in peak operating condition with excess passengers, the tip-up seats with its cushion (2] is folded & aligned with the squab (1) & as a whole is rotated and aligned with the wall (4) with the pivot mechanism (3) as illustrated in FIG 3. The city bus with the tip-up seats in this arrangement is depicted in FIG 5. With the seats being folded and aligned to the side wall, the standee space (5) is increased drastically thereby enhancing the passenger carrying capacity of the bus. FIG 6 illustrates the installation of these tip-up seats on a BRT bus whist being operated in a normal operating condition with limited passengers i.e. with seated passengers & some standee passengers on the standee space (5). Though the same tip-up seats as in city bus are used , instead of being mounted directly on the side wall the seats are mounted to a rails (6) which run along the length of the bus & are interrupted only at the doors (7).The pivot cum sliding mechanism (3) rests on the rail (6) & are capable of sliding along them as shown in FIG 2.

The BRT bus whilst being used in peak operating with excess passengers, the tip-up seats with cushion (2) is folded & aligned with the squab (1) & as a whole is pushed along to the end of the rails. By this all the seats installed in series over the rail (6] get accumulated together towards one end. This arrangement is illustrated in FIG 7. With the seats being pushed aside the standee space (5) is increased drastically thereby enhancing the passenger carrying capacity of the bus. FIG 8 illustrates the sliding and pivoting mechanism in detail, which is installed at the end of the seat assembly. This mechanism consists of a cantilever block (12) which houses the sliding mechanism (8). The cantilever block (12) also houses the slide lock (9) and swivel lock (10). As illustrated in FIG 9, The sliding mechanism (8) consists of a set of seven rollers (11), five in the bottom and two in the top. These rollers help in sliding the tip up seat cantilever arrangement over the rail (6) along the length of the vehicle. Besides helping in sliding, they also take the load of seat and passengers. The rollers that are oriented vertically take the normal load and the corresponding reactions. The flat rollers take the transverse load and twisting moment that arise because of the cantilever arrangement.

In order to hold the seat in the intended position so that it doesn't slide during the transit, Slide locking mechanism (9) is provided as illustrated in FIG 10. The rail (6) which runs along the length of the vehicle has slots (13) provided at predetermined intervals. After moving the seat assembly to the desired location it is held in place by a locking mechanism (9). This locking mechanism is a form of pivoted clamp installed over the cantilever block (12) on one end and it latches on to slots (13) in the railing (6) at predetermined locations. Similarly the seat assembly also has a swivel locking mechanism (10) installed over the cantilever block (12) of the seat assembly. The swivel lock ensures that the seat doesn't swivel during the transit and remains in the intended position. The swivel locking mechanism (10) is illustrated in FIG 11. The Swivel locking mechanism (10) holds the cantilever and consequently the seat assembly in extended and folded position. The swivel locking mechanism (10) consists of a spring loaded pin (14) and a spring loaded plunger (15) incorporated in the cantilever beam (16) and the block (12) respectively. Pressing the plunger (15) enables the seat assembly to be swiveled & on releasing the plunger the spring loaded pin (14) on the cantilever beam locks the seat in place.

WE CLAIM

1. A seating system for city bus comprising: a tip-up or foldable seat installed in succession inside the passenger saloon of the bus; a pair of rails, one mounted on each side wall & run across the length of the passenger saloon; a pivoting and sliding mechanism integrated with each seat assembly , which also mounts the seats on the rails on side wall; wherein, the pivoting and sliding mechanism along with the rails on the side wall enables the seats to be moved forward or backward inside the passenger saloon of the bus.

2. The seating system according to claim 1, wherein the tip-up or foldable seats are mounted perpendicular to the side wall of the bus.

3. The seating system according to claim 1, wherein the rails are installed at a height inline those of the seats.

4. The tip-up seat according to claim 2, wherein a pivoting and sliding mechanism is integrated with the seat.

5. The seating system according to claim 1, wherein the tip-up seats in the default or closed position are pivoted and aligned with the side wall, thereby creating sufficient floor space for standee passengers.

6. The seating system according to claim 1, wherein the tip-up seats in the default or closed position are pushed along the rail to one end of the bus, thereby creating sufficient floor space for standee passengers.