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Ground clearance under moving buses must be sufficient to avoid chassis or
body contact with the road, or pavement edge, at either extremity of wheel overhang,
or midway between axles. Therefore, when designing the highway regard should
be taken of the ride height, kneeled step height etc. of low flat floor buses
so body contact can be avoided at all times.
With a standard kerb height of 100mm a standard bus with no kneeling mechanism will leave a step of 250mm which is too great for many ambulant disabled people to step up or down and an impossible barrier to wheelchair users.
A low flat floor bus with a kneeling mechanism can lower its step edge ride height above roadway from 350mm to less than 250mm. This gives a step height of less than 150mm at a standard kerb. If the bus has a ramp this allows the bus to be accessed by both ambulant disabled people and wheelchair users.
Poor road conditions, traffic calming measures and hilly terrain, all contribute to a ground clearance problem for long low flat floor buses. Kneeling buses could be made with greater ground clearance, increasing the ride height and the degree of kneeling. Such a design would, however, require a bus to kneel at every stop. For safety reasons the Department of Transport will not permit automatic kneeling systems, and insists that suspension lowering remains under driver control. A nonkneeled step height above roadway of 350mm is required to minimise the inconvenience to passengers when a driver fails, or is unable, to kneel the bus.
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