What may be the total weight of people and their luggage transported in a bus?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
A. As much as the maximum gross capacity of the bus.
Explanation
In the photo a crowd of passengers is getting on an articulated city bus at a stop. The total mass of the people carried and their luggage may be as much as the permitted payload of the bus - answer A.
The Road Traffic Act defines the permitted payload as the greatest mass of load and people that a vehicle may carry, that is the difference between the maximum permissible mass and the unladen mass, and prohibits exceeding this value. The maximum permissible mass (answer B) is the mass of the bus together with the passengers, so the passengers cannot weigh as much as the whole vehicle. The actual mass of the bus (answer C) is simply how much it weighs at a given moment - it is not a limit for the load. For calculations, an average mass of a passenger with luggage is assumed: 68 kg in a city bus and 71 kg in other buses. That is why the number of standing places is limited by a sign in the bus.
Legal basis: Art. 2 point 54 and 56 and Art. 61 para. 1 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym); § 17 para. 1 and 2 and § 18 para. 1 point 12 of the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure on the technical conditions of vehicles and the scope of their necessary equipment