Turn the steering wheel, steer the bus. Simple, right?
Buses are heavy, which makes it hard to turn the steering wheel. Buses use large steering wheels for better leverage, but if there is too much leverage, your hands have to move very fast for normal steering. In addition, the long wheelbase of buses means you need to turn the wheels sharper than a car to take the same corner. The faster you go, the easier it is to turn the steering wheel, but at low speeds it can be quite tiring. Transit buses spend a lot of time at low speeds, and pulling in and out of bus stops. Some routes are on winding streets, and some routes may be over an hour from end to end, with little or no break if traffic has been heavy. Thus, driving in transit service can be quite taxing. As the joke goes, “Power steering by Armstrong.” Transit buses were often equipped with power steering as early as the 1950’s, shortly after it was offered for cars, and before it was common on school or highway buses. Some buses use air-assist power steering; it is rumored to be help
