Lean on Me

For some reason, my bus the past week has been especially full, forcing me to stand for most of my commute. I'm always surprised by how difficult it is to keep my balance going around curves, so I thought I'd try putting some hard numbers to the issue.

I've talked about the strange, non-inertial effects of being in a turning vehicle before, but this situation is much simpler. When the bus goes around a turn, it drags my feet along with a centripetal acceleration. Balance is all about keeping the total forces on you over your feet:

Here, ar is the centripetal acceleration of the bus, and g is the acceleration from gravity. Using geometry,

When something moves in a circle with radius r and velocity v, the centripetal acceleration is

Putting these together and solving for v gives

The turning radius for a standard city bus is about 21.5 feet, and the maximum angle a person can lean is around 15°. Putting these together gives a speed of just 9 mph! As a non-driver, I don't really have a feel for typical turning speeds, but the National Association of City Transportation Officials suggest a maximum of 15 mph, so our limit is well below this. Of course, when you're riding a bus you can lean into the curve, and hold on to the railings, neither of which we've accounted for here. Still, I feel a little justified in lurching around awkwardly during my commute.