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      11-22-2012, 12:08 PM   #1
Lucky1
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Shuttle bus and seatbelts

Whenever I take a shuttle bus from the airport, between my companies branch offices, the first thing I do when I first sit down in the bus is put on my seatbelt. I've noticed I'm often the only passenger who bothers to do so. On one occasion at La Guardia people even took notice, gawked and me and whispered comments behind my back when I asked someone to move so I could access the seat belt harness. A co-worker even joked that I wanted to be "the lone survivor in our horrific car accident".

Am I missing something here? Is there a disadvantage to wearing a seatbelt in a van or passenger shuttle versus in a car that the rest of the world seems to know? I'm the kind of person who puts his seatbelt on if he's taking his car around the block. To me its not just a matter of safety but a matter of discipline, ie training yourself so that it is automatic and not something that needs to be asked "Should I?"
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      11-22-2012, 12:27 PM   #2
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i always put my seat belt in my car or any other car if i'm in the front seats.. in the shuttle bus, never..
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      11-22-2012, 04:20 PM   #3
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      11-22-2012, 04:41 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by panicos81 View Post
i always put my seat belt in my car or any other car if i'm in the front seats.. in the shuttle bus, never..
Thanks. Any reason why you choose to wear a seatbelt in one and not the other? That's really what I'm trying to learn.
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      11-22-2012, 09:49 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucky1 View Post
Thanks. Any reason why you choose to wear a seatbelt in one and not the other? That's really what I'm trying to learn.
For a similar reason as to why women like to drive heavy SUV's. The more weight you have going into the collision the better chance you have of fairing well...or better than the other party.

Shuttlebuses are closer to the top of the "food chain" than your average car / SUV. Thus we feel invincible when stepping into one and no need to where a seatbelt, provided we keep a wary eye on the semi coming in from the opposite direction and are prepared to grab the nearest support with a kung-fu grip.

Either that or maybe its just peer pressure and we are afraid people will gawk at us and make comments behind our back if we buckle up since they aren't...
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      11-22-2012, 10:06 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joekerr View Post
For a similar reason as to why women like to drive heavy SUV's. The more weight you have going into the collision the better chance you have of fairing well...or better than the other party.

Shuttlebuses are closer to the top of the "food chain" than your average car / SUV. Thus we feel invincible when stepping into one and no need to where a seatbelt, provided we keep a wary eye on the semi coming in from the opposite direction and are prepared to grab the nearest support with a kung-fu grip.

Either that or maybe its just peer pressure and we are afraid people will gawk at us and make comments behind our back if we buckle up since they aren't...
i chuckled.
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      11-23-2012, 03:35 AM   #7
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Because the way those seatbelts dangle from 18 story high and don't really fit might actually break something in a minor accident. I usually stuff my backpack in front of me so that's already a shock cushion right there. Don't need another weirdly positioned seatbelt that's not even really secure. Unless you're talking about the ones that go across the waist; those I use sometimes.
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      11-23-2012, 03:45 AM   #8
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I wear seat belts in my Bimmer and friend's cars.

Shuttle buses, taxis, and planes... no. And yes, I'm aware I'm violating Federal regulations with that last one.
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      11-23-2012, 04:24 AM   #9
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I think it is a peer pressure issue as another responder mentioned.

I rarely travel on a shuttle bus or coach. I do however encourage my kids to buckle up, whenever they are on a school coach / bus. I believe it is fairly common in the UK, for schools to insist on seatbelts in coaches / buses.

I don't see any downside to putting your seatbelt on, irrespective of the size of the vehicle.
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      11-23-2012, 06:45 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by panicos81 View Post
i always put my seat belt in my car or any other car if i'm in the front seats.. in the shuttle bus, never..
This is one that I've never understood... why only the front seats? If you get into an accident and the passenger behind you is not wearing their seatbelt, they will inflict some major physical damage upon the driver. I will not move the car until all occupants are wearing their seatbelts. It's free and it saves your life.

As far as shuttle buses go, I don't weat a seatbelt because it's often a "closed course" and the bus travels very slowly. If it were to hit something I would be padded by all of the other piles of meet standing around me and would likely not be injured.
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      11-23-2012, 09:33 AM   #11
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I can't remember the last time I saw seatbelts on a bus/shuttle/tram??
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      11-23-2012, 05:43 PM   #12
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I was a passenger in a full-size greyhound type bus that struck a car once. It made an awful noise, but you could barely feel a thing, it would be like hitting an empty cardboard box in your car. Car was mangled up bad, they had to cut the driver out, but nobody on the bus suffered any injury at all, except maybe the mental image of seeing that if you sat at the front. Let me put it this way, if I had been holding a drink, if I spilled any it would have been from the force of the driver jamming on the brakes after he punted the car that drove into his path, not from the initial impact. Certainly an eye-opening lesson in newtonian physics.

Of course if it hit another bus or truck the story would be different, and the smaller type buses they often use for shuttles may be worse off against the typical car too...
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