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Don't take this as an indictment of all electric buses. London has over 500 electric buses (out of 9,000). A lot of the buses in my neighborhood are the new ele

Don't take this as an indictment of all electric buses. London has over 500 electric buses (out of 9,000). A lot of the buses in my neighborhood are the new electric double-decker ones and it's extremely nice. They are quieter, run smoother, don't polute the air, and have cool features like USB charging at every seat. It is like riding in a Tesla - just an obviously better bus experience. It will just take some time to get all the tech worked out everywhere as all these buses are custom spec and not mass produced models yet, but we will get there. This page has good info but doesn't include the newest batch of buses yet: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_emission_buses_in_London https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_emission_buses_in_London

sjg007 4y ago
This is just great! Now they need electric taxis. Hopefully the end of the black snot!
- breakfastduck 4y ago
  Where I live (UK town) our biggest local taxi firm has an app and an entirely electric fleet. So we're getting there!
- gkop 4y ago
  Would you say more about the connection between black snot and ICE taxis? The reason I ask is that I was under the impression people commonly get black snot from the the tube (eg. https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/16jjgt/london_why_do_i_have_black_snot_when_i_visit_you/ https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/16jjgt/london_why_d... ).
- nathankleyn 4y ago
  Thanks to the ULEZ (ultra-low emission zone) in London, this is very much already happening — anecdotally (because I can't find any easy numbers right now, everything I can find is from 2020) a huge number of the private and public taxis in London are now hybrid or full electric. Apparently there are already 5k TX electric taxis out there, which is a good start: https://levc.com/levc-celebrates-sale-of-5000th-tx-electric-taxi-in-london/ https://levc.com/levc-celebrates-sale-of-5000th-tx-electric-... https://levc.com/tx-taxi/overview/ https://levc.com/tx-taxi/overview/
- rosndo 4y ago
  Live in central London and usually walk everywhere, never experienced or even heard of black snot. Pretty sure it’s only a thing for the tube-travelling demographic.
throw93232 4y ago
>It is like riding in a Tesla Not sure it is an advantage. My city had electric troley buses for many years. People are complaining about fast acceleration. Some bad drivers just slams gas with bus full of standing people.
- black_puppydog 4y ago
  well that's easily fixed in software. tesla would actually be the best example for it.
- ericd 4y ago
  Seems like some telemetry-based performance bonuses might be in order. You drive smoothly? You get a bonus.
trmonx 4y ago
Electric buses are not a new hip thing, we have had electric buses since forever. It's called a trolleybus. At the moment its in every way superior to batteries.
- toiuoiu289801 4y ago
  This. It's astonishing that someone would put batteries into these things.
- subw00f 4y ago
  I'm not an expert, but I would think creating or changing existing routes for trolleybuses would require setting up overhead wires, which probably need a few things to be in place beforehand. Isn't that just slower/costlier than simply driving on a different street? What about intercity routes? Doesn't sound superior to me on that front. edit: grammar
  - warning26 4y ago
    Changing routes isn't really that frequent once you have a working setup. As for intercity travel, this should be set up as rail, not a bus, in basically 100% of cases.
    - subw00f 4y ago
      I've been to major European cities in the last few weeks, Paris, London, Edinburgh, all of them, with no exception had bus routes changed temporarily because of construction, protests, events etc. Of course it's frequent.
  - lapinot 4y ago
    Most trolleybuses I know have independent emergency propulsion and can reattach without too much difficulty at specific places (usually stops). So temporary short rerouting isn't difficult. Apparently they even have trolley/battery hybrids in zurich where the battery is used as part of normal operation (claiming to need wires only for ~half of the route).
- 4y ago
rvz 4y ago
> Don't take this as an indictment of all electric buses. Exactly, or any electric vehicles. Interesting to see this here to remind others that a bad electric bus should not spoil the bunch of other electric buses. > It will just take some time to get all the tech worked out everywhere as all these buses are custom spec and not mass produced models yet, but we will get there. Yes. There will always be issues in the technology and it takes time to iron the issues out. Question is with that specific manufacturer / developer / maintainer however is whether if partners or clients are going to wait for fixes to be resolved or will they move to a competitor or back to the status quo.
ttoinou 4y ago
> don't polute the air It does pollute the air, but not at the same place (where the energy is produced) and not where the bus is running (in town)
- ReactiveJelly 4y ago
  Pretty sure net pollution is reduced because power plants can burn fuels more efficiently than the ICE in a vehicle, and the power plants don't have to idle or waste energy with friction braking. But I don't have a source on hand.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  Polluted air in high density city environments is far more damaging to far more people. And much of the energy can come from renewables or whatever energy is available for cheap at night.

sjg007 4y ago

This is just great! Now they need electric taxis. Hopefully the end of the black snot!

breakfastduck 4y ago
Where I live (UK town) our biggest local taxi firm has an app and an entirely electric fleet. So we're getting there!
gkop 4y ago
Would you say more about the connection between black snot and ICE taxis? The reason I ask is that I was under the impression people commonly get black snot from the the tube (eg. https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/16jjgt/london_why_do_i_have_black_snot_when_i_visit_you/ https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/16jjgt/london_why_d... ).
nathankleyn 4y ago
Thanks to the ULEZ (ultra-low emission zone) in London, this is very much already happening — anecdotally (because I can't find any easy numbers right now, everything I can find is from 2020) a huge number of the private and public taxis in London are now hybrid or full electric. Apparently there are already 5k TX electric taxis out there, which is a good start: https://levc.com/levc-celebrates-sale-of-5000th-tx-electric-taxi-in-london/ https://levc.com/levc-celebrates-sale-of-5000th-tx-electric-... https://levc.com/tx-taxi/overview/ https://levc.com/tx-taxi/overview/
rosndo 4y ago
Live in central London and usually walk everywhere, never experienced or even heard of black snot. Pretty sure it’s only a thing for the tube-travelling demographic.

throw93232 4y ago

>It is like riding in a Tesla Not sure it is an advantage. My city had electric troley buses for many years. People are complaining about fast acceleration. Some bad drivers just slams gas with bus full of standing people.

black_puppydog 4y ago
well that's easily fixed in software. tesla would actually be the best example for it.
ericd 4y ago
Seems like some telemetry-based performance bonuses might be in order. You drive smoothly? You get a bonus.

trmonx 4y ago

Electric buses are not a new hip thing, we have had electric buses since forever. It's called a trolleybus. At the moment its in every way superior to batteries.

toiuoiu289801 4y ago
This. It's astonishing that someone would put batteries into these things.
subw00f 4y ago
I'm not an expert, but I would think creating or changing existing routes for trolleybuses would require setting up overhead wires, which probably need a few things to be in place beforehand. Isn't that just slower/costlier than simply driving on a different street? What about intercity routes? Doesn't sound superior to me on that front. edit: grammar
- warning26 4y ago
  Changing routes isn't really that frequent once you have a working setup. As for intercity travel, this should be set up as rail, not a bus, in basically 100% of cases.
  - subw00f 4y ago
    I've been to major European cities in the last few weeks, Paris, London, Edinburgh, all of them, with no exception had bus routes changed temporarily because of construction, protests, events etc. Of course it's frequent.
- lapinot 4y ago
  Most trolleybuses I know have independent emergency propulsion and can reattach without too much difficulty at specific places (usually stops). So temporary short rerouting isn't difficult. Apparently they even have trolley/battery hybrids in zurich where the battery is used as part of normal operation (claiming to need wires only for ~half of the route).
4y ago

rvz 4y ago

> Don't take this as an indictment of all electric buses. Exactly, or any electric vehicles. Interesting to see this here to remind others that a bad electric bus should not spoil the bunch of other electric buses. > It will just take some time to get all the tech worked out everywhere as all these buses are custom spec and not mass produced models yet, but we will get there. Yes. There will always be issues in the technology and it takes time to iron the issues out. Question is with that specific manufacturer / developer / maintainer however is whether if partners or clients are going to wait for fixes to be resolved or will they move to a competitor or back to the status quo.

ttoinou 4y ago

> don't polute the air It does pollute the air, but not at the same place (where the energy is produced) and not where the bus is running (in town)

ReactiveJelly 4y ago
Pretty sure net pollution is reduced because power plants can burn fuels more efficiently than the ICE in a vehicle, and the power plants don't have to idle or waste energy with friction braking. But I don't have a source on hand.
panick21_ 4y ago
Polluted air in high density city environments is far more damaging to far more people. And much of the energy can come from renewables or whatever energy is available for cheap at night.