It's designed for midget drivers. :V

largest number of busses in the US have a wheel forward design. There are far more school busses built on a standard truck chassis then the cab forward commercial busses. The cab forward design offers better weight distribution and optimized interior space at a cost of maneuverability. The wheel forward setup offers a better turning radius and better stability when turning, as well as less training to drive.

I find with the optare that the turning circle is a lot worse then with the wheel behind the driver designs. You also cannot swing over kerbs with the ground of the bus meaning that corners can be harder in circumstances with the frount forward wheel design. The optare is built on a 3 1/2ton chassis unlike other busses which have their own chassis designs. Less training to drive a forward wheel setup is true but I disagree with better turning radius. Stability is debatable. I haven't driven a frount wheel system on a double decker which tends to be the more unstable designs.

they probably botched the front suspension. A school buss on a freightliner chassis or other truck chassis with an unmodified front end often has a better turning radius, just not as good of visibility out of the front, but it really depends on the front suspension.

Well the chassis used on Optare's is the same as standard 3 1.2 ton trucks. Dont get me wrong, it steers fine and i actually prefer Optare's over Enviro's (the smaller versions of wheel behind busses) however the Enviro's have less issues going around corners,. espec tight 90' ones with poorly parked cars. Optares are slightly wider as well due to the wheel placement