Need of the hour: Bigger buses for fatter people

Australia's growing obesity problem has taken on new proportions with buses struggling to handle maximum load laws.

In a desperate bis to tackle this weight menace, the transport officials was mulling over increasing the mass limit of a two-axle bus from 16 to 18 tonnes, reports Yahoo.

According to the National Transport Commission's annual report, when the laws were designed in 1989, the average adult's weight was taken as 65kg. However,  2011-12 Australian Health Survey found the average male had increased to 86kg, while the average female was 71kg, which is way above what the average weight was in the late 1980 - the average man weighed 77.4kg and the average woman 62.6kg.

The annual report stated that 63% adults are now obese - the figure is up from 45 per cent in 1989.

But it is not only the growing waist sizes that is under the scanner.

Wheelchair access lifts, fuel-efficient engines, rollover protection devices and air-conditioning units have also added weight to each bus.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.