How many polar bears laid end to end match a modern London double-decker bus?
A modern London double-decker bus measures 10.9 m (35.8 ft) end to end, and a polar bear measures 2.5 m (8.2 ft) end to end. A modern London double-decker bus comes to 4.36 times the length of a polar bear, a difference of 8.4 m (27.6 ft). Take 4 polar bears laid end to end and you reach 10 m (32.8 ft), still 90 cm (35.4 in) short of a modern London double-decker bus; one more would overshoot by 1.6 m (5.25 ft). A modern London double-decker bus is written in tens of metres and a polar bear in single metres, a whole band of scale apart.
| Object | Real size | Axis measured | What the figure covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modern London Double-Decker Bus | 10.9 m 35.8 ft |
Length | Modern Low-Floor Type |
| Polar Bear | 2.5 m 8.2 ft |
Length | Whole body or structure, end to end |
Both figures, Modern London Double-Decker Bus and Polar Bear, come from the Size It Up measurement set, one real-world size and one measured axis per object, last checked in September 2026; outline provenance is listed on the sources page.
Why this one is hard to judge by eye
A modern London double-decker bus is drawn about 4.36 times as wide as a polar bear as well as 4.36 times its length, so the area it takes in the frame grows faster than the figure anyone quotes. A modern London double-decker bus sits in the range with no handy yardstick: too big to hold against anything you have carried, too small to need a horizon, so it and a polar bear end up filed under the same vague heading of very large.
What each figure covers
Modern London Double-Decker Bus. The modern low-floor bus runs about half as long again as the Routemaster it replaced, which is the shape most people still picture when they hear double-decker.
Polar Bear. Polar bears are measured nose to tail on all fours. Standing upright they reach considerably higher, and the two figures are regularly quoted as though they were the same one.
A modern London double-decker bus and a polar bear are both quoted as a length, which is what makes the ratio above a like-for-like figure.
What else is about that size?
Measured the same way, Modern London Double-Decker Bus at 10.9 m sits within a quarter of Quetzalcoatlus at 10.5 m, T. rex at 12 m and Whale Shark at 12.1 m. Polar Bear at 2.5 m has Bull Shark at 2.4 m, Harley Davidson at 2.4 m and Horse at 2.4 m for company, within a tenth. Swapping any of those in for a modern London double-decker bus would move its ratio to a polar bear by less than 25%.