JTA will go green with its first alternative fuel buses

[thelakelander]

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority is moving some of its buses into the green lane.

Over the past 15 years, the nation’s transit agencies have rapidly reduced their use of diesel fuel and shifted to alternative means of power for their buses.

JTA is about to break that barrier by adding seven hybrid buses that use a combination of diesel and electric power, just like a hybrid automobile does. Their arrival marks the first time the agency’s 155 buses have run on anything other than standard diesel engines.

full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-05-26/story/jta-will-go-green-its-first-alternative-fuel-buses#ixzz2URmdDgtG

[Josh]

"Alternative fuel" made me think natural gas, not diesel-electric hybrid. Cool either way.

[Dog Walker]

Big whoop... 1 mpg gain.  They should have gone to natural gas which would be cleaner and the buses would be less expensive too.

[coredumped]

They would see a bigger benefit if they had routes that people actually wanted, and perhaps even offer transfers.

[Lunican]

Eliminating the circuitous routes would save even more fuel.

[tufsu1]

both CNG and route restructuring are planeed...fact is JTA is 10+ years behind peer transit agencies...and catching up isn't going to happen immediately...so far, Nat Ford is making the right moves and is slowly turning the "aircraft carrier" around.

[Charles Hunter]

Given the number of miles JTA buses travel every year, even saving one mile per gallon is a lot of savings.

Just a thought about Natural Gas - whether liquid (LNG) or compressed (CNG) - is the life-cycle environmental "cost" of the fuel.  While the "tail-pipe" emissions are less for natural gas, a lot of it is produced by fracking, which has a host of environmental problems.

[Ocklawaha]

...fact is JTA is 10+ years behind peer transit agencies...and catching up isn't going to happen immediately...

Yeah you can still find a couple of Abbot-Downing Stagecoaches parked out on the back lot! They'd still be using them but their horse died. 

I'd love to see this appear downtown, a technology that would literally rocket our bus system ahead of most of the nation. These total electric buses would be great replacements for the downtown PCT Trolley's. They use inductive charging, when they stop at certain stops the batteries are charged, there is no physical connection between the bus and the chargers buried in the pavement. Totally green? Think solar.

[Jason]

Ock is on to something!


And as I posted in the Tampa BRT thread, paint a line on the roadways to indicate the bus route.  Would go a long way to helping residents understand where they're going.  Just imagine rolling down Blanding "green line" and watching the bus cross a perpendicular "blue line"?  The passenger would instantly know that the blue line crossing would be a transfer point to other parts of the city.

[JayBird]

...fact is JTA is 10+ years behind peer transit agencies...and catching up isn't going to happen immediately...

Yeah you can still find a couple of Abbot-Downing Stagecoaches parked out on the back lot! They'd still be using them but their horse died. 

I'd love to see this appear downtown, a technology that would literally rocket our bus system ahead of most of the nation. These total electric buses would be great replacements for the downtown PCT Trolley's. They use inductive charging, when they stop at certain stops the batteries are charged, there is no physical connection between the bus and the chargers buried in the pavement. Totally green? Think solar.

Ock, is this for real? Why isn't JTA using these? How expensive is this trechnology to run? This reminds me of a story I heard growing up, down the street was an old farmstead and in it lived this crazy man named Erwin. He looked just the doc out of Back To The Future. When he died, he left the township over $30 million to keep his property from being developed. The money came from his invention that created an engine for a car that ran on regular unleaded and got over 200 mpg, no joke the Bernards Township Library has some of his drawings. The plans were bought by a big company with big plans. They still exist today, at the time they were called Esso New Jersey. Today you know them as ExxonMobil. Wonder what else JTA has hiding in those bus sheds.

[JayBird]

Ock is on to something!


And as I posted in the Tampa BRT thread, paint a line on the roadways to indicate the bus route.  Would go a long way to helping residents understand where they're going.  Just imagine rolling down Blanding "green line" and watching the bus cross a perpendicular "blue line"?  The passenger would instantly know that the blue line crossing would be a transfer point to other parts of the city.

I chuckled reading this in the other thread, but I see your point.  How about maybe some special signage?  Here is why:

1.) People seem to get confused enough with the yellow and white lines already on the road, do we really want to confuse them more?
2.) You would probably be surprised on how much FDOT spends in road paint, it isn't like running down to ACE and picking up a gallon of Benny Moore's. Then add in the 4 or 5 people who will say you need to pay them for body work bc of overspray on their cars.
3.) I am not even sure it is legal, when my motorcycle club does runs we have to agree that any markings on the roadway to signal upcoming turns not be in the travel lane and must be capable of being naturally washed away within 72 hours of application (as per FDOT Division 2 Office in Lake City).
I like the idea of symbolizing a route, maybe colored markers shaped like St Johns River buoys along the roadside?

[tufsu1]

Tallahassee is the first transit system in Florida to acquire electric buses...and they only got a few (fully funded by a Federal grant)

[Ocklawaha]

Yes it's for real, a downtown shuttle bus with 3 double doors on the side, tickets with a roving checker/fine for skipping tickets, would be a huge leap forward. The new multi-door buses allowing for very quick loading during rush hours (ever seen the Courthouse station at 5 pm?) People that claim electric buses and streetcars are just as polluting as gas powered ones - as the power is generated with fossil fuels completely miss the fact that electric power can be generated by solar, tidal, methane, wind and recovered engine heat.

[JayBird]

Wow, I am surprised with all of the "studies" done with mass transit in Jax that this hasn't been a viable option presented.  Heck, I can actually see people driving to Mickey and stopping just to see exactly what an electric bus is.

[Dog Walker]

People that claim electric buses and streetcars are just as polluting as gas powered ones - as the power is generated with fossil fuels completely miss the fact that electric power can be generated by solar, tidal, methane, wind and recovered engine heat.

Not to mention that the pollution controls on fossil fuel power plants are much better than those on diesel buses and their power conversion efficiency is higher.