Here Are More Fun Facts About Articulated Buses: COTD

Menu Home » Here Are More Fun Facts About Articulated Buses: COTD Here Are More Fun Facts About Articulated Buses: COTD By Mercedes Streeter October 14, 2026 7:32 pm 4 Comments Most people likely commute to work in cars, buses, trains, and planes without thinking too much about how they work. But if you think about it, these vehicles are pretty amazing in how they work. Articulated buses look simple, but there’s a lot going on under the skin.

I wrote about how the “bendy” bus works. Bus tech TheDrunkenWrench adds even more context:

The way that damping works is super simple as well.

The two hydraulic pistons are linked to each other. In the middle of them is a valve body with 2 metered orifices and an accumulator that pressurizes the system.

Basically, different levels of damping is just varied restriction of flow from one cylinder to the other.

There’s some more features in the system, but it’s largely flow restriction based on drivetrain input and the 4 position sensors on the joint itself.

There’s also an override switch, which is a great way to see the joint Snap, Crackle & Pop if you’re not careful.

You should have reached out, Mercedes. I could’ve sent you some better photos!

“from comfortable coaches to towering double-deckers”

Hi, this is your friendly American Alliteration Association Autopian Alliteration Auditor.

Towering? That’s tepid text, try this.

Double-deckers of dizzyingly daunting dimensions dedicated to dependably driving from departure to destination.

Great piece by the way, if this were the New Yorker agents would be clamoring to make a movie out of it, but fortunately, we already have The Big Bus.

“Sometimes a pocket square is just a pocket square.” – Sigmund Ford.

One standard banana. Per the Standard Banana Standard.

Matt wrote a Morning Dump that contained a story about high fuel oil and diesel prices. Jdoubledub:

I despise my neighbors that still use heating oil. Love choking on burning oil emissions when walking the dog. Just take the incentives and get a heat pump already.

He’s waiting for you to get so fed up that you buy it and have it installed for him.

He’s cleverer than I thought. A worthy adversary…

I remember riding that generation of Metro bus. Rode the 43 to Ballard in fact. No air conditioning back then.

0 Member TheDrunkenWrench 1 hour ago Woo! For once I’m being helpful!

2 Member PlugInPA 1 hour ago Those heating oil fumes are really disgusting when they decide to stick around.

0 The Winter of Our Discount Tent 2 hours ago Ah, one of our old Bredas. Haven’t seen one of those since I started driving at KC Metro 10 years ago. The hinge hydraulics on newer coaches work pretty well. The old high floor diesel New Flyers were another story. They would do this thing in cold weather, where the rear of a heavily loaded coach would start to swing back and forth into other lanes at freeway speed. Fun thing for a new driver to learn in Seattle rush hour traffic. If you slowed down below 50, it would usually correct itself.