New Buses Get Rave Reviews

News Articles
04/18/2003

AC Transit’s prototype Van Hool buses are pleasing substantial numbers of passengers, according to onboard surveys taken since the coaches went into service in October.

On both transbay and local runs, passengers were asked to fill out cards ranking various features of the coaches on a scale of from one (least liked) to five (most liked).

In nearly 500 responses to the poll, a substantial 86 percent gave high marks to the ease of boarding and alighting from the new buses – 64% checked off I like it very much and 22 percent more checked I like it.

Just as many passengers (87 percent) gave favorable reactions to the exterior styling. Also, 89 percent liked or liked very much the big bus windows and the panoramic viewing they afford.

Other features that gained high ratings from the passengers included the interior ventilation (86 percent), that extra door at the rear of each Euro-style bus (83 percent), the powered door openers (81 percent), and the stop request buttons (75 percent).