this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 124 points 1 year ago (18 children)

What the actual fuck⁈ “Batteries can catch on fire.” Sure, whatever could go wrong with a 1000l tank of FUCKING GASOLINE.

AAAaaaaHHhh I hate people!

[–] mriguy 55 points 1 year ago (39 children)

Going with the “batteries catch on fire argument” is stupid. “Batteries are heavy and expensive” is probably more compelling. But yeah, wires are better solution for things going in fixed routes.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You’re aware that diesel is quite hard to catch on fire

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's why he said gasoline tho

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

But that’s not relevant for busses

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No it's not. It's harder to catch fire than gasoline.

It still catches fire easily.

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 year ago (6 children)
[–] Shartacus 32 points 1 year ago

Bitch I’m a truss

[–] Vlixz 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That looks pretty sick ngl

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It didn't suck as a solution when it was implemented. The buses function like small diesel trains; they don't have to deal with traffic, and can travel faster because they kinda lock in to the rails. It didn't need as much land as a freeway or cost as much as a dedicated train line because you could just retrofit old buses. Plus the advantage of being able to run a standard bus route at each end of the line, no need for connecting services.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What am I looking at? A diesel bus on rails?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pretty much. This is the O-Bahn in Adelaide. More info (and the original picture I shamelessly ganked) here: Wikipedia link

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Meanwhile on the Autobahn:

[–] dustojnikhummer 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Steel rails have even less friction

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

WTF Germany how did I not know this was a thing and why aren't we doing it here in the US?

Question though. Obviously the wires can't cover every road and the truck sometimes has to drive off the wired road. Do they have small batteries to carry them between the wires?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are 5 testing areas for this atm and only a handful of trucks which use that. These are hybrid trucks having batteries and electrical engines besides the main traditional diesel engine. So it's far from an widely adopted tech right now.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Battery fires are also less common than gasoline fires. But batteries are expensive, so overhead lines are still a good idea

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[–] DrTeeth 41 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Switzerland runs a lot of these buses. Also trams, normal buses , trains. For those people in the U.S., it's a very effective and efficient system called public transport.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honestly, for growing places, or places with bad public transit, diesel busses are the way to go. They are the cheapest and require almost no new infrastructure so it can offset car emissions quicker than the other options. Established bus routes that are popular should be converted to tram lines or BRT.

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[–] rustyfish 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

People need to learn the difference between „Doesn’t catch fire“ and „Doesn’t burn AS EASY AS gasoline“.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The problem with battery fires is that most batteries are made out of lithium which reacts with pretty much everything and is extremely difficult to put out.

In addition obtaining the rare earth metals for these batteries ecologically is a real challenge and it will only get worse the more we use.

I'm not saying we should abandon electric cars but we should know the benefits and drawbacks of each option before making a decision.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

"Electric buses aren't safe because the batteries can catch on fire"

London here running hybrids for over half a decade with no issue.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (8 children)
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[–] Zeta_Reticuli 21 points 1 year ago

Trams.... Where isn't possible trams use trolleybus... That's it!!! But what is sad, Eastern Europe falls into buying electric buses because it's mainstream 😬

[–] NotNotNathan 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We had trolley busses here in Wellington NZ for decades. The network needed an upgrade so our shortsighted council ripped it down while promising battery buses to replace the trolleys. We ended up with old, dirty, diesels chugging round our city for years, an I'm not sure we've gotten rid of them all yet. It was a disaster.

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[–] mlekar 19 points 1 year ago (7 children)

The best thing trolleybuses have going for them is their relatively low dependence on rare earth elements in production in contrast with BEV buses with their large batteries. Trolleybuses environmental toll is way smaller and it makes producers and operators way less dependent on third world countries devastating the environment with slave labor.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Let's face it: in most US cities there probably isn't much aesthetic for the power lines to spoil. Just like in the grey Soviet cities where they come from

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Greetings from Winterthur, a pretty nice, human-friendly, town in Switzerland which bunch of old buildings. Also called the bike-city of switzerland. It turns out that the trade off is worth it. I rather have power lines than cars or fuel powered busses.

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[–] DrQuint 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's also an idea of doing this in highways.

Tom Scott video on it: https://youtu.be/_3P_S7pL7Yg

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

We have these in Vancouver, a lot of them. And a few battery buses as well

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

add some steel wheels then its perfect

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

They are still running in The Netherlands, although only in 1 city.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My grandfather ran a printing press using old trolley bus motors, reliable and powerful shit.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (5 children)

When I was there I found those busses really cool. But to my knowledge, they're being phased out. They essentially combine the worst of bus and tram:

  • relies on special infrastructure and thus cannot go anywhere, is more expensive than bus
  • often shares the street with other cars being more vulnerable to traffic, uses tires (leading to fine particles)
[–] dustojnikhummer 9 points 1 year ago

I see it the other way. Trolleybuses (with either battery or diesel backup) are the best of both worlds. Much cheaper to built (compared to a tram) and doesn't pollute in the city (compared to a full diesel bus)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

i actually like the aesthetic.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

San Francisco has a fair number of overhead electric busses, too.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think someone else mentioned that San Francisco has these. I also wanted to throw in that Seattle has got them too. Maybe it's a West Coast thing in the USA? I'd be curious to know if other parts of the country have them too.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I heard we tried that in some German Cities way back in the 80ies or even late 70ies, but the technology wasn't that far yet and the overhead cables would get damaged when the buses engaged them, sometimes leading to complete outages of the tram network, and as such it was scrapped again. Glad to see that other places took it on later, we could really need that right now.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trolley Buses are over 100 years old as a technology. They were super wide-spread in the entire eastern block and now cities in hungary, the czech republic and romania introduce a lot of newer (better) models: For example, Skoda has one that can easily integrate with exsisting tram infrastructure and has batteries to bridge smaller distances in places where there are no overhead lines.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Buses are lame. They combine the cons of public transit with the cons of driving a car in a city. I believe in tram surpremacy.

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[–] Nioxic 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We have a ton of regular electric busses in my city in Denmark

Big powerlines everywhere in narrow city streets? People would get mad.. it looks terrible. And we already have all our power cables below ground.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

here in Santiago we have more than 1000 Electric Buses In operation, they work great.

Trolleys can't divert trough an alternative route if the original route got blocked somehow (for example it got barricaded.) wich is a common occurrence here in Santiago.

[–] dustojnikhummer 11 points 1 year ago (16 children)

I'm Czech and my city has a trolleybus network. Every single trolleybus has either a) diesel engine or b) battery backup, depends on their age. Hell, there are even entire lines where 1/3rd they run on batteries. But, they can be smaller, so the vehicle is lighter.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would like to drive around in one of these please.. in the front or back, i dont mind!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Seattle used to have these as well. Sadly, the US (outside of a few cities that kept their 1930's infrastructure and updated it) can't find it's ass with both hands when it comes to public transportation.

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