How many passengers a county bus or van can carry

The seating (i.e., passenger carrying) capacity of each motor vehicle common carrier of passengers, as defined in section 288-2, Hawai‘i Revised Statutes, operating over any public street or highway within the County shall be determined and rated as follows: (1) If the length of any seating space in the vehicle is twenty-two inches or less, the seating capacity of the space is one passenger. (2) If the length of any seating space is more than twenty-two inches but not more than thirty-eight inches, the seating capacity is two passengers; provided, that for any motor vehicle common carrier transporting children to and from school or during school excursions and outings under any school bus transportation contract with the State, if the length of any seating space is more than thirty-eight inches but less than forty inches, the seating capacity is three passengers below nineteen years of age. (3) Each additional fifteen inches shall be seating space for an additional passenger. (4) In determining the seating capacity of a vehicle of the so-called “sampan bus” type, where there is no divisional space between the side and end seats, the inside perimeter of the seat shall be measured to determine the length of the seat and the same shall be considered as but one continuous seating space. (5) The seating space occupied by the chauffeur shall be included in and considered as part of the rated seating space of each vehicle. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION § 18-15 (6) In fixing the capacity of any vehicle whose passenger seating capacity, as determined by subsection (a), is in excess of seventeen passengers, if the examiner of chauffeurs of the County department of finance finds that the minimum inside distance from the aisle floor to the ceiling of any vehicle is seventy-four inches, except any vehicle used exclusively for the transportation of school students in which case the minimum inside distance shall be seventy inches, and that the construction of the vehicle may safely carry an additional number of standing passengers in excess of the actual passenger seating capacity of the vehicle, then the examiner of chauffeurs may fix and allow a rated passenger carrying capacity to the vehicle in excess of the “rated seating capacity,” and for all purposes of this article, the rated passenger carrying capacity, so determined, shall be the “rated seating capacity” of the vehicle, except that the motor vehicle common carrier transporting children to and from school or during school excursions and outings under any school bus transportation contract with the County, the rated passenger carrying capacity shall be the actual passenger seating capacity of the vehicle. (A) In determining the number of standing passengers which the vehicle may carry in excess of its actual passenger seating capacity, the examiner of chauffeurs shall consider as a basis for a determination, but not be limited to, a minimum area of one and one-half square feet of aisle floor space per standing passenger. (B) No vehicle, whose “rated seating capacity,” includes standing passengers therein shall be permitted to carry passengers in excess of its actual passenger seating capacity (as distinguished from its “rated seating capacity”) within any area of the County outside the geographical limits of the City of Hilo; provided that the council may by resolution extend and take away the privilege of carrying standing passengers in any vehicle to any other area of the County and for any period as the council finds necessary.