BlueBrixx
BlueBrixx Brixxbus Set 102630
BlueBrixx's Brixxbus is a BlueBrixx-Specials model of a modern city bus, built from 386 blocks and weighing around 450 g. Bricks by Qunlong. No stickers or prints.
The low floor changed cities more than any other bus design
A modern city bus has a floor about 30 centimetres above the road, level with the kerb, with no steps at the door. Until the 1990s almost none did.
The old arrangement put the floor above the axles and engine, roughly 80 centimetres up, reached by two or three steps. That is a trivial obstacle for most people and an impassable one for a wheelchair, a walking frame, a pushchair or anyone whose knees have stopped cooperating.
Getting rid of the steps meant redesigning the vehicle around the problem: portal axles with the drive taken around the outside rather than through the middle, the engine moved to the rear corner and turned sideways, air suspension that can kneel the whole bus towards the kerb, and a ramp.
The effect went far beyond accessibility legislation. Boarding got faster for everyone, which shortened stop times, which improved timetables across entire networks. A design intended to admit wheelchairs made the bus quicker for the people who were already using it.
It is one of the clearest examples of something designers call the curb-cut effect, named after the dropped kerbs cut for wheelchairs that everyone with a suitcase, a trolley or a bicycle now uses without thinking.
In the BlueBrixx range
Sets 102632 (Double-Decker), 102746 (Long Distance Bus) and 102960 (Articulated Bus) are the other buses.
Specifications
Pieces: 386 Β· Series: BlueBrixx-Specials Β· No stickers Β· Weight: approx. 450 g
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