# Sleeper buses and design


Finally back to Coyotitan after a very long 18 hours on a bus (it was
supposed to be 14, according to the ticket seller) from Mexico city.
Since the individual lights did not work, I could not read after sunset
(around 8PM), and had plenty of time to think (after my brain had been
toasted with the movie Alexander the Great on full volume).\
 ![Trolley
bus](http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/kids/transit/art/trolley.jpg)\
 Always trying to travel cheaply, and preferring overland for many
reasons, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in buses and trains, in many
countries. You come across a number of ingenious designs, and others not
so smart - and you wonder, how does this kind of innovation happen, and
spread? Why do they have trolley buses (electric buses, kind of a mix
between buses and trams) in Eastern Europe and Russia, but not in
Western Europe (that I know of)? In China, most long-distance buses are
sleeper buses, with beds (see picture). Properly designed, they can
probably carry almost as many people as a normal bus (in which nobody is
standing), and they are much more comfortable for a long night.
[![Sleeper
buses](http://www.orchiddesigns.net/Assets/images/China2004/Sleeper%20bus%20interior%201633.jpg)](http://www.orchiddesigns.net/Assets/images/China2004/Sleeper%20bus%20interior%201633.jpg)

The interesting thing from an economical point of view, is that I would
love to pay 10 − 20 extra for a night in one of these, instead of in a
normal bus - but I don’t have that choice. And how is my economical
choice registered in the market if the alternative does not exist?

Another ingenious solution that I came across once, on my way from
Slovenia to Sweden on a bus where everybody but I spoke Serbo-Croat,
where seats that fold into “beds”. The part of the seat that you sit on
folds out to cover the entire space, and the back is turned up to cover
the entire space above - thus you have two layers of beds, and since
each person will “lay across two seats”, you can fit exactly as many
people as you could when they were sitting. Surely it is kind of
cramped, you might be forced to be intimate with someone you don’t know
(needless to say there is no undressing going on), but still the
opportunity to lay down and stretch out is far superior to trying to
find a comfortable situation in a normal bus.

Or look at the super-long buses going through dedicated bus lanes in
Brazil? Made by a Swedish company, when are these coming to
Europa?![Long buses in
Brazil](http://imagebank.vbc.volvo.se/asset_server/get_asset_image.asp?idasset=2714&src=Thumbnail&size=200x200&filename=U2004_1184.jpg&dsnpart=vbc_photos&guid={689AB636-E513-4629-95AD-53F999B3147C})
I know car freaks like to read magazines about new cars, the latest
features and innovations - but I would like to read “Public
Transportation Weekly” — what are the latest brilliant features they
have thought up, and when is it coming to a city near me?

Stian