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I’ve often wondered if a double decker would make a good conversion. Can a six foot person stand comfortably up and down?
A mate of mine had a Messerschmitt.
The 2T engine was stopped, then restarted to run backwards to reverse the vehicle. 50mph backwards was possible!
He managed to roll it, quite a feat for such a low vehicle.
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Our military Unimogs could do 100kph, backwards. I can confirm, it was achieved on the airstrip.
I still have an Italian APE (pronounced ahpay) van in the garden, 3 wheels, scooter engine and handlebars in the cab with room on the bench for 2 people (who know each other). That has the same system, a 2nd lever for go foreward and go back, thus full speed in reverse was possible.
Not advisable though because the body is wider than the cab and the mirrors are little round ones, hence why my wife once demolished a row of veg merchant’s trestle tables at the market. 
No recriminations just hysterical laughter as all the locals helped with the restauration and collection of rolling cabbages etc. 
No, average headroom is 5’ 8" downstairs and 5’ 11" upstairs. Lose your parking and you are in trouble either with finding an alternative or actually moving the vehicle. It will be cold and the heating is a constnat fire risk.
To anyone considering this then your age is important. I saw a healthy and very active friend deteriorate mentally and physically over quite a short period of time, when he lost his rented flat and was reduced (at his insistence, he refused help and accomodation offered) to living in a converted lorry - which was actually inside a building - with mains washing and toilet facilities available. The cold very quickly lead to serious illness and then death at 68.
This obviously isn’t the whole story we did eventually get him into a very decent council flat, but by then the illness which killed him had got a good hold.
I lived in that bus for two years and had a lot of fun with it, as I kept it roadworthy and travelled a bit. However, to answer your questions: no, they don’t make good conversions because the window area is too vast to hope to compensate by basic insulation or heating. I ended up with solid fuel stoves both upstairs and down. Heat fails to rise in a double-decker, especially if you’ve curtained off the downstairs to keep the heat in!
As for height, I’m only just 5’ 5" (less now, over 30 years later!) so no probs there.
There’s a guy in Milton Keynes living in a bus stop/shelter, does that count ? Probably not mobile though.
He’s well known to the council and has previously accepted their help but is apparently back in his bus shelter now.
He has curtains up too and as it’s winter the whole bus stop shelter is tarped up.
I blame Thatcher.
The buses were more frequent before deregulation.
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