Gazette queries hybrid buses
Since Andy Riga left the transit beat at the Gazette the writers have clearly been advised to be more negative about the STM’s progress. Currently they’re chipping at the plan to invest in hybrid buses.
-
Kate
Reply
SANTÉ QUÉBEC COVID NUMBERS
Deaths in Quebec:
20,015
As of April 17
Numbers from Santé Québec
Updated irregularly now
Canada Covid epidemiology update
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
☠️
INCIDENT TOTE BOARD 2024
Island homicides
8
Pedestrians killed
4
Cyclists killed
0
Pages
Other levels of gov’t
Sideblog projects
Enviro Montreal is a Twitter feed that follows environment news.
Archives
Pages rescued from montreal.com
Meta
DeWolf 13:06 on 2019-02-14 Permalink
It’s interesting that the article focuses on study of hybrid buses in Hong Kong that found their performance was not particularly impressive when dealing with hills, hot weather and congestion. Fair enough, but what the article doesn’t mention is that:
Hong Kong is very hilly. Montreal is pancake flat by comparison, even factoring in Mount Royal.
Traffic in central parts of HK is exponentially more congested than Montreal. Average speeds are very low throughout the day and there is a lot of stop-and-go. I can’t think of a single bus route in Montreal that would face similar conditions over such a long period of time.
Hong Kong is very hot. By Montreal standards, it’s summer there for 10 months a year, and in the actual dog days of summer, we’re talking about weeks and weeks of 33 degree days, which is probably closer to 40 degrees on the pavement of a congested road. Air conditioning needs to work really, really hard there. Again, Montreal just can’t compare, even if it’s a particularly hot summer like in 2018.
tl;dr, this particular study was very useful for Hong Kong, given its particular environmental conditions, but perhaps not so much for Montreal.
Ian 19:01 on 2019-02-14 Permalink
@DeWolf Considering that vehicles are even less fuel efficient in cold weather I’m not convinced by this line of reasoning
Raymond Lutz 20:50 on 2019-02-14 Permalink
Un journal qui écrit “he said he approached the Quebec government several times over the years in an attempt to sell the idea of buses fuelled with renewable natural gas , but his sales pitches have fallen on deaf ears.” ne vaut pas le papier sur lequel il est imprimé… RENEWABLE NATURAL GAS! Quels cons.
Kevin 08:27 on 2019-02-15 Permalink
@Raymond Lutz
Renewable natural gas comes from compost and garbage dumps.
They used to just flare it off, and I remember going near landfills as a kid and seeing the flames shooting into the sky.
EmilyG 12:07 on 2019-02-15 Permalink
The STM has posted a rebuttal:
http://www.stm.info/fr/presse/nouvelles/2019/le-point-sur-les-bus-hybrides-de-la-stm—des-vehicules-efficaces–fiables-et-ecologiques
Chris 15:33 on 2019-02-15 Permalink
Kevin, I don’t think I’d call garbage dumps renewable either. For compost, I guess that fair enough, but it’s a tiny fraction of where gas comes from, and there are better uses for compost anyway.