Howard County to add cutting-edge electric buses
Howard County will add three electric buses that use an advanced technology -- the first of its kind in an American public transit system -- that lets the vehicles be recharged without pluggiing them in to an outlet.
County Executive Ken Ulman announced that Howarrd Transit has received federal funding to acquire the full-size, lightweight buses for use on routes in and around Columbia. The buses use what is called an inductive charger that repowers the bus batteries without a physical connection.
According to Howard County, the technology has been used successfully in Europe but has not been used on an American transit system. The $4.7 million acquisition is being financed primarily by a $3.7 million Federal Transit Administration grant authorized under the federal economic stimulus program. The buses are slated for use on Howard Transit's busy Green Route serving the Mall in Columbia, Howard Community College and Howard County General Hospital.
Comments
Interesting. Of course, I think this would only work if the routes on which this technology is going to be used have a common layover point where the charger could be installed. I'm curious as to how long the vehicle has to dwell at the charger to get a sufficient amount of juice.
If I'm not mistaken, there was a fleet of rechargable buses on Denver's 16th Street mall that used a non-plug-in charger at either end of the corridor. However, the charging mechanism was not contact-less/inductive: I think there were big copper plates on the roof of the bus that made contact with corresponding overhead plates suspended above the bus lane.
Posted by: Traffic Engineer | November 13, 2010 11:03 AM
That works out to nearly $1.6 million a copy, four times the cost of a diesel bus.
Your tax dollars at work.....
Posted by: R686ST | November 16, 2010 9:14 PM