Passengers Give Big Flexible Bus a Big Green Light

The snakelike bus twisted through Orange County on Wednesday for the first time, drawing puzzled faces to its windows, double-takes at its 60-foot-long body and kudos from the surprised passengers who rode it free.

“Es mas comodo,” declared Anita Santos-Michaels. Her neighbor agreed: “It’s much more comfortable,” Rene Hogan said.

Its debut was an experiment for Orange County Transportation Authority officials, who hope the “articulated” bus will help relieve overcrowding on three of the county’s most popular routes. The North Dakota-based bus is on loan to the OCTA for two days, so officials can decide whether they want to spend $350,000 apiece on the fancy new rigs, operations manager Mike Greenwood said.

“If all goes well, this bus could be a good way to accommodate our riders and still bring on new ones without increasing overall operation costs,” Greenwood said. “We’d have the same number of drivers, just more passengers.”

Wednesday’s 12-hour test drive took the bus--which is connected in the middle by a flexible, accordion-style joint--through Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Pedestrians paused and pointed as Julie White and Jeff Mellinger, who took turns behind the Hula Hoop-sized wheel, pulled into various bus stops.

“It’s like they’ve never seen a bus before, Geez,” said White, who has driven for OCTA for 21 years.

She marveled again at the attention being paid to a hulking, 40,000-pound bus during a break at the Newport Beach Transportation Center in Fashion Island, where she invited a group of swarming children aboard.

“What I can’t figure out is, how do you turn this thing without breaking the drive shaft?” asked 11-year-old Josh McDowra of Costa Mesa. “It’s so long, you know.”

A string of OCTA bus drivers drifted in and out of the new bus while it was parked at the station as well, quizzing White and Mellinger about its performance as though it were a new toy. How does she turn? Handle? Accelerate? Could you fit her in the stalls OK? What about those brakes?

“Good, great,” Mellinger said. “And I have to say it had quite a bit more pickup than I expected.”

Regular passengers welcomed the bus for its 20 extra feet and 21 additional seats, saying they’ve had to stand up for the entire ride on some days. Last month 78 people crammed into a 37-passenger bus on Harbor Boulevard, officials said. That route, which extends from Fullerton to Newport Beach, is the county’s most popular, carrying 4.6 million passengers each year.

Victor Montano, 23, said the buses have become so jammed on the Santa Ana/Fashion Island route that they often pass him by on the street.

“That can make me late for work,” said Montano, who rides the bus every day to his job as a chef in Laguna Beach. “They need 50 buses like this, I swear.”

Montano’s evaluation was shared by dozens of fellow riders who filled out surveys about the new bus, agreeing it was more spacious, smoother and even felt safer than OCTA’s regular fleet. But Greenwood said it could be another year before the buses arrive permanently in Orange County.

“First we had to see how we liked them,” he said. “Now we have to figure out how to pay for them.”

Ticket to Ride

The Orange County Transportation Authority is trying out new longer buses designed to accommodate more riders without giving up turning radius. A rubber gasket-like device moves like an accordion to allow the bus to bend in the middle around tight corners. Other bus features:

Low-floor: Ramp access, no wheelchair lifts

Length: 60 feet

Width: 8 1/2 feet

Weight: 40,000 pounds

Top speed: 70 mph

Turning radius: 41 feet

Miles per gallon: 4.5 (city), 6.5 (highway)

Seats: 58

Maximum capacity: 140

Source: Orange County Transportation Authority

Researched by BONNIE HAYES / Los Angeles Times