On Thu, Sep 04, 2003 at 03:04:58AM -0700, Paul Johnson wrote: > Interestingly enough, if you're in the north Willamette Valley, get > yourself to downtown or Northeast Portland and hop on the 8 NE 15th > Ave to Portland or the 8 JACKSON PARK to US-VA Hospital. This is a > very steep bus route, TriMet is starting to introduce diesel-electric > busses. On SW Campus Drive (which has about a 200 foot elevation gain > in it's single block), these puppies *fly* up the hill like it's flat, > while the diesel-hydraulic busses struggle up the hill in first gear > and do zero to 15 in about 20 seconds (pedal to the metal) pulling out > of a stop on that hill. Fascinating. How do they compare on raw bhp and power-to-weight ratio? What kind of generator and motor technology are they using to get the weight down? Do they have a bank of auxiliary batteries for regenerative braking and starting boost? > Electrified trolley lines (you know, a bus with a pole going to an > overhead line) used to have a pretty good ROI as well, though I don't > think they do any more with the advent of fuel cell and > diesel-electric busses, which are starting to be adopted in cities > whose planners aren't retarded. Fuel cells? Already? Cool. I want one for my bicycle. -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F
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