Durham to start using hybrid buses (Raleigh, Chapel Hill: chapel, how much, university)

[upchurch]

How about this? The city of Durham is going green. It's pretty cool.


Durham tests hybrid buses :: WRAL.com


Edit: I cannot get that link to work properly. Apologies to all.

[travelmate38]

All I can say is it is about time. I am also starting notice many taxis are going with the Toyota Prius now. On a recent trip to Arizona, about 15% of the taxis I saw were Toyotas.

[Fuquay Caniac]

fixed link: Durham tests hybrid buses :: WRAL.com

That is awesome! Great for Durham!

[iamweasel]

Originally Posted by travelmate38

All I can say is it is about time. I am also starting notice many taxis are going with the Toyota Prius now. On a recent trip to Arizona, about 15% of the taxis I saw were Toyotas.

I was just in Vancouver and rode in a Prius taxi. I asked the guy how he liked it and I got a 20 minute rant on how much he hated it. (I was kind of )

He said it gets the same MPG's as the Corolla taxi he had before this one but it cost $10K more. He also said it's been in the shop several times. The last time all the lights/control panels went blank and it took them 2-1/2 weeks to fix it. Yikes...

[hula]

Fantastic!! First Chapel Hill, now Durham!! Kudos to the two most progressive cities in the Triangle!!

[JJingle]

Originally Posted by hula

Fantastic!! First Chapel Hill, now Durham!! Kudos to the two most progressive cities in the Triangle!!

Cough! Cough! And we here in Raleigh are inhaling the black cloud that follows the buses here.

[upchurch]

I just did not know they even had such a thing as a hybrid bus.

[hula]

Originally Posted by upchurch

I just did not know they even had such a thing as a hybrid bus.

Pretty cool, eh? And they're relatively quiet too! Thanks for posting that link!! Glad to hear about it!

[welovedurham]

Thanks for that--awesome!

Related, Duke University buses and some other vehicles run biodiesel.

[goat1of2]

I saw the hybrid bus yesterday. At first I thought it was the RV bus of some celebrity or something, then I saw all the windows. It is clearly marked "hybrid"

As for the Prius, I think that taxi driver must be a leadfoot because if you take a look at one of the many user-reported fuel economy websites (e.g. Fuel Economy) you'll see that in city driving the Prius is roughly 20 mpg better than the Corolla. However, some Prius drivers report only 33 mpg for mostly city driving. They've got to be doing something wrong! Jackrabbiting, tailgating, aggressive tactics....just like a taxi driver!