Front Wheel Skirts on LA Metro Bus

[cfg83]

Hello -

I saw a FRONT wheel skirt on an LA Metro bus this morning. I did some googling and found that someone had already started a thread on this on another forum (where RobertSmalls is a member) :

Front Wheel Shirts/Spats - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum - July 4th, 2009


This type of bus was already in service without front wheel skirts. This implies to me that it's economical to have front wheel skirts. I think the bus manufacturer would have justified the front wheel skirt for MPG benefit.

Or, maybe it's just aero-bling?

In any case, getting some pix of the setup would be really cool. If I ever find one parked, I will ask the driver to turn the wheelz for me.

CarloSW2

[SVOboy]

There's a thread somewhere on here about using that style of bicycle-rain-guard-type front covers...

Interesting someone's already done it

[winkosmosis]

That's a slick looking bus. Does the cover steer with the wheel?

[cfg83]

winkosmosis -

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

That's a slick looking bus. Does the cover steer with the wheel?

I say yes. I only saw it live for a moment, but I could see a gap between the wheel-well and the skirt. You can also see the gap in the photo when you compare it to the rear wheel skirt.

CarloSW2

[cfg83]

Hello -

This is interesting. Maybe it's not for aero, :

Fender skirts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some cities, such as Los Angeles, have fender skirts on municipal buses, as they can prevent items in the road from slipping under the tires.

CarloSW2

[SVOboy]

I don't understand how that would work. Do you wanna call the municipality and ask?

[cfg83]

SVOboy -

Originally Posted by SVOboy

I don't understand how that would work. Do you wanna call the municipality and ask?

I as looking for the "mechanism of attachment" when I found this :

Safety guard - US Patent 5462324 Description

Further injuries can occur when individuals exit from a bus. Sometimes individuals slip as they depart from the bus and in an attempt to regain balance, grab the wheel of the bus, placing a hand or arm in the gap between the wheel and wheel well of the bus. When the bus starts moving, the individual's arm or hand is propelled along in the direction of the rotation of the moving wheel. Typically the individual's arm or hand is caught between the wheel and wheel well and is severely lacerated or mangled. If the individual is unfortunate enough not to have pulled his hand or arm away soon enough, the hand or arm may also be thrust to the ground in the path of the oncoming wheel. When the wheel travels over the hand or arm, the hand or arm is crushed by the wheel.

This is just one possible justification, but liability issues would encourage the installation of this stuff. We could repurpose the mechanism.

CarloSW2

[orange4boy]

Those plastic wheel storage covers would be perfect to use for something like this. I have wanted to do this for a while now. Snow might be murder on it but perhaps not.

Start with a two piece plastic cover, easily separated flange/seam radially along the middle of the cover. You would have to attach to the back of the spindle. simple!

As a side benefit these would keep your wheel wells clear of all that road gunk that always collects under there: the main reason for the inevitable rust in these areas. I just cleaned out my rear wells today. Yuck!

Would reduce the aero drag but still leave a gap for the air to push around.

[anthonye81]

It would be a shame if it's for litigation or health & safety issues rather than aero efficiency. Ah well