Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Alternative Public Transportation Technology

Motivated by the discussion Alex facilitated in his last post regarding electric cars, I found this great website -- it has a lot of interesting ideas about alternative public transportation technology.

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/public-transit/

What are your thoughts? Does investment in these types of transportation seem more, or less beneficial than Obama's proposal. Would it be any more, or less feasible?

13 comments:

  1. There are some really cool ideas here. I especially liked the solar powered bus, as it looks more affordable and less explosive than the hydrogen cell bus.

    That said, changing the vehicles used in public transportation systems is expensive and that cost would most likely be passed on to consumers. Currently, buses and trains are not what are responsible for the majority of emissions in the United States. Encouraging more people to use existing public transit options (even if they have high emissions) instead of their cars will conserve more energy than simply switching to more fuel efficient buses and trains.

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  2. This is a great thing to be considering!

    Thoughts on select models:
    Solar Power Bus - I like it, I am always repulsed when buses pull away from the curb and a huge puff of black exhaust billows out. Yeah, that really reinforces public transportation being "more green" than driving. So this is an excellent idea, but the fact that it was designed in 6 weeks means there are most likely some undiscovered flaws that will stop it from being as efficient as others... and if they wait to be sure all the kinks are ironed out, it won't be on the road for awhile, and who knows where gas prices will be then?

    JPod - doesn't appear efficient for most cities, it's kind of like a gondola, right? It would be incredibly difficult to implement the rail system and is too small to be effective for much city travel or over long distances.

    Diesel-Electric Hybrid - sure, this cuts down on emissions, but the problem is still there no matter how you look at it. For now a good solution, but I'd hope they'd vamp up the green movement even more.

    Toyota Bus-Train - my favorite. Big enough to hold a fairly significant number of people and also works on pre-existing rails and roads. The downfalls 1) it doesn't say what it's powered by and 2) this blurb gives away the fact that the article is a few years old (they wanted to make a new version by June 08)

    All that said - I wonder which of these are on the road now?

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  3. This is great, Selin! I really like the suggestion for the solar power bus - why don't we already have those?

    Anyone who's interested in public transportion innovations should check out the Woodward Light Rail, a new public transportation system they're trying to implement in Detroit. It's incredibly necessary, so it's exciting that the plans are underway. According to the MLive article below, it will also increase property values by 40%. Awesome, right?

    http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/02/woodward_light_rail_a_proven_i.html

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  4. Thanks Bridgett. I am most excited by the idea that light rail systems are being used, not only by low income residents who may not have cars, but by middle class residents who would otherwise be driving. This really ties into the ideas we've been talking about on how to lower emissions in American cities and I'm hopeful that such initiatives will really lower the number of cars on the road.

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  5. I think the initial cost would be enormous, but if there was a way to get past that, its a good idea. maintenance and replacement costs are another thing that needs to be considered as well

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  6. Bridgett, that is really exciting! Do you know anything about the funding for it? The article mentions that long-term funding is still to be figured out, but I'm curious of immediate, short-term funding.

    In terms of general funding, Martin’s first comment remarked on how changing the vehicles used in public transportation would be expensive, a cost passed on to consumers. In previous discussions some people have mentioned the privatization of public transportation. What are peoples’ thoughts on that? Benefits and drawbacks?

    Also, the cost of putting 1 million electric cars on the road is vast as well, but we're pushing forward with it anyways. This money (tax dollars) could be put into public transportation as well. Are electric cars a higher priority because they will be more profitable in the long-run? If that’s the case, it makes me sad because we are then witnessing another routine split between environmental issues and social justice on account of capitalism – supporting an initiative that will surely reduce emissions, but really only affect the middle class, leaving behind those of lower income because public transit wouldn’t be as profitable. This is of course speculation – I’m just pondering aloud. There are likely many factors to consider.

    Environmental and social justice issues are so intertwined today, especially in urban areas. I agree that it's incredibly important to reduce the dependence on oil and the resulting emissions (primarily from those of the middle class), but to focus solely on that seems insufficient. Perhaps there could be two parallel initiatives -- I don't believe it has to be either/or.

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  7. Everyone should check out the public transportation system in Medellin Colombia, particularly their Metro Cable line. It is super cool because it is non-polluting and it serves the populations of the city that are most in need.

    The wikipedia article describes it well

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrocable_%28Medellin%29

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  8. Agreeing with most of what has been said, I think it is going to cost a lot of money to carry out these ideas. I am excited at the fact alternate transportation is being considered and ideas are being formed but again, the cost seems to me a bit much for us to produce right now. In the future? YES!

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  9. Yeah, agreed with a lot of what's been said, especially about the rail systems. Kailey's link to wiki is really cool; that's definitely a transportation resource I'd want to live by.

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  10. I agree with Richard. I think the cost of creating such transportation ideas would be vast and hard to overcome and find the funding to finish such projects. However if there was a way in which to get past this these would be some great ideas to improving transportation.

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  11. There are some good thoughts here. It will be cool to see some of these extreme ideas in Europe and Japan in the next 15/20 years. I think that some of these ideas are good for the East coast and cities in general where people live closer together but I think many Americans aren't ready to give up their car. Obama realizes this and is making changes accordingly.

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  12. I love the idea of hybrid school buses! New York has over 50,000 school buses, so gradually bringing in these hybrid buses would be huge.

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  13. I liked the idea of using biodiesel fuel for transportation.The is no need to completely convert diesel engines for bio-fuel use.Hence is would be much cheaper than other forms of energy efficient transportation.Biodiesel has its own disadvantages though.For instance it takes up a considerable amount of arable area,emits nitrogen oxide etc

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