this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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The cool thing about electric city busses: you wouldn't even need to have them on batteries. They could be attached to electric wires
My city has been stuck trying to expand its tram system for decades at this point, but whenever I mention that we could introduc trolley buses instead people look at me like I'm crazy!
They just make so much sense for our use case. We're a hilly city, so the rubber tyres are more suitable than steel on steel, the routes they want to build on don't really have the space for separated infrastructure, so having buses that can run on the roads will be less disruptive, and by not having to install rails they're a lot cheaper too.
The main reason I dislike buses compared to rail is that the very things the engineers and operators consider to be advantages -- the less need for permanently-installed infrastructure and therefore greater flexibility for changing routes -- I consider to be disadvantages because it means the routes can't be relied upon to stay put. With rail, once that line is in, it's in, and it's safe for the people along it to plan their lifestyles accordingly. Transit-oriented development, for example, isn't likely to happen along a bus route the way it is along a rail line. Residents are a lot more hesitant to go car-free when the risk exists that the bus route they rely on could be cancelled or changed one day. The visible infrastructure of a rail line signals long-term investment in the community (thus making it more attractive for development) in a way that mere bus stops do not.
I realize that you're talking about trolley-buses, not regular ones, so the existence of the catenary wires might help mitigate these issues. Still, I don't think it would be a strong enough signal to achieve the desired effect (especially since the wires are the ugly part of an electrified transit system, and the community getting only the ugly part is kind of a signal of its own, LOL).
keep organizing around it! Strong Towns could be a big ally in this fight. Get some people to join you and take turns using your speaking times in city council meetings to explain why electric trolleys would be better suited for the needs of the city
You see the mistake you made was saying it's cheaper we don't like cheap expenses here in America
That's a stupid idea. You'd need extremely long cables that would keep getting tangled up around the city. They would have to be disconnected and the bus would have to connect to closest socket to continue on the route. They would also need to have huge spools of cable, and soon the city would be drowning in cables. You'd have to keep rebuilding all the buildings on top of cables. Again and again. Then at some point, the city would be so high there wouldn't be enough air for people to breathe. Do this everywhere, and you may even considerably slow down Earth's rotation.
/j
trolleybus go brrrr
Seriously though, those poles come off weekly and the bus driver has to get out and fiddle with them to reattach. It wastes 5 minutes and slows down the bus behind it.
That's what no one mentions: with these poles one bus can't pass another bus.
Rails would be less prone to attack from psychopaths