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The Guideway Bus (GB) system is a kind of guideway transit system using conventional buses fitted with mechanical guidance equipment. This paper presents a general overview of the GB at the Asian-Pacific Exposition: FUKUOKA '89. This is the first commercial application under license of the Japanese authorities. This system consists of 4 vehicles, 4 stations, a 900 m long double-track guideway with only a single-track section between intermediate stations, a control center, and a maintenance yard. It is capable of carrying 975 pass./h/direction at the minimum headway of 4 minutes. The vehicles are diesel-engine buses, on which the driver operates both brake and accelerator, but does not steer the wheel except for driving in the yard. A vehicle protection subsystem has been developed for avoiding collision or deadlock on the single-track.

In this paper a computer simulation study on the effects of steering parameters on lateral dynamics of the guideway bus to contribute to a development practice of designing optimum steering control system are dealt with. A stability limit of vehicle lateral motion is analyzed and an emphasis is laid on the effects of moment of inertia of a conventional steering wheel and lateral elasticity of the guide rail which have proven to reduce the critical vehicle speed. It is pointed out conclusively that a normal bus equipped with additional simple guidance equipments can be guided smoothly on a simple guideway at adequately high vehicle speed.