ELI5: Why don’t passenger seats on buses etc face backwards?

r/

Wouldn’t that be safer in the event of a collision or sudden braking?

Comments

  1. SopwithTurtle Avatar

    People like to look where they’re going, and are more prone to motion-sickness if they can’t.

  2. nana_3 Avatar

    Seeing forward let’s passengers see when they are coming up to a stop easier.

    Also if you have people facing backward away from the driver and doors they feel like they’re in private. And people in private do gross and/or illegal things.

  3. Heavy_Direction1547 Avatar

    Military aircraft used to do that, some kid’s car-seats, and trains gave you a choice: it is safer but some people find it disorientating.

  4. dunn000 Avatar

    How would it be safer? Genuine question. Don’t understand how one is safer than the other. Facing forward at least removed motion sickness side effects

  5. geeoharee Avatar

    It’s quite uncomfortable to sit facing backwards (if you’ve been in the folding seats in a London taxi, you may have noticed it). Safety is achieved through the seat design, that’s why the seatback in front of you is usually quite high so that in a sudden crash your body will just hit the seat and not the commuter sitting in it.

  6. DotRevolutionary6610 Avatar

    They literally do, in city busses. Just not in tour busses.

  7. Atypicosaurus Avatar

    There are many buses that have both forward and backwards seats.

  8. Xelopheris Avatar

    It isn’t really safer unless it’s a full-back seat. With a normal bus seat, you would just prevent the lower back from moving, but the neck and head would have nothing stopping them. And full back seats would make it hard to see upcoming stops to know when to get off. It would also make it hard to figure out where there’s a free seat as you walk onto the bus.

  9. Rhellic Avatar

    Uhh… There often are?

  10. skiveman Avatar

    Huh, in the UK we have both buses and trains have some seats that face backwards. There’s not many seats that do but there are some.

    The reason why they don’t is because some people get a little travel sick if thy can’t see where they’re going and also because it does, unfortunately, take up some extra space that the company could use to fit more front facing seats in. For trains especially you’ll find that there are sets of 4 seats that all face a small table (so 2 facing forward and 2 facing backward).

  11. QuizDalek Avatar

    Yah the government buses when I was a kid had both ways facing seats in NSW

  12. Lethalmouse1 Avatar

    You can live, or you can live in a bubble. 

    Can we live?