Trolly buses

[videlect]

Have asked many "what happened to the electrically powered trolly buses which operated in many of the worlds <br>
larger cities?" They were quite, clean and shifted pollution to the point of power generation.

 

[kaival]

Good question. When I was young there were trolley buses that served our neighbor hood as well as electric street cars. My guess is that two major factors were involved; route flexibility and maintenance costs for the power grid. No wait a third factor, which would be cheap fuel. At the time when they converted, the buses were gasoline powered. This was in Portland Ore. Now they have a light rail system that is very successful as well as their bus fleet which is very effective. I live in Washington now in a remote location. Seattle has buses that run on diesel or electric trolley, the electric is used in tunnels and some parts of downtown area.<br>
When visiting London I noted that the double-decker bus drivers applied throttle as if they were metered fuel with an eye dropper, they also conserved the energy of their motion. Here the drivers do the opposite, full throttle till you need full brakes. See the light red, keep the throttle on until the last moment then brake hard. As you know nothing is gained or saved by being the first to the next light. I always wonder how much fuel would be saved nationally if commercial drivers were more conservative.<br>