Road testing of lateral acceleration in urban bus

Abstract

Lateral acceleration is one of the parameters used to assess a driver’s behaviour and the comfort of urban bus passengers. Because of its purpose, a city bus is a vehicle designed to transport large numbers of people over relatively short distances. The specific driving conditions require constant stopping and accelerating. Lateral acceleration values collected in selected road manoeuvre tests or performance tests conducted in real traffic conditions will determine the lateral vehicle movement dynamics. This paper presents the results of lateral acceleration in a urban bus, obtained during experimental studies in selected road manoeuvres on various surfaces. The surface condition and type do not substantially affect the lateral acceleration when driving on a circular track. During test drives on a circular track, the range of lateral acceleration amounts to 5.56÷7.37 m/s2. The lateral acceleration obtained during double lane change attempts amounted to 2.84÷4.42 m/s2. The maximum lateral acceleration values achieved by the urban bus on a dry and wet asphalt surface are similar.