To: Professor MacBride
From: Raymond Wang
Date: April 15, 2013
Re: Annotated Bibliography
“Greening Mass Transit & Metro Regions.” MTA. www.mta.info/sustainability/pdf/SustRptFinal.pdf (accessed April 15, 2013).
This report shows the current number of hybrid electric buses and compressed natural gas buses in 2012. The report also shows what percentage of the active fleet is hybrid electric. This report says that ninety one percent of all new vehicles purchased are some sort of hybrid and will help reduce emissions. This shows how the MTA has definitely improved throughout the years with such an accomplishment. The report continues to talk about improvements that need to be made regarding carbon emissions and energy usage. Even though most of the changes do not directly change the fleet, they will also be useful in helping buses be cleaner. Certain suggestions such as solar roofs may benefit the entire MTA system along with the buses. Since buses need to be refueled at stations, having energy storage from solar panels can help the MTA use more renewable resources. The MTA also have some energy storing capabilities such as photovoltaic cells and hydrogen fuel cells.
The sustainability report is one of the most important parts of how the MTA is changing. I was only focused on the specific sections that were relevant to the buses and how they could be improved. Upon reading, I discovered that renewable energy is being used in MTA facilities. While it does not state what these facilities are for, subways or buses, it is still important since the carbon footprint is being reduced. The report also shows a chart of the current distribution of the fleet’s vehicles. In addition, it also shows the number of hybrid electric and compressed natural gas vehicles as of 2012. This information will be helpful in showing how the majority of the current fleet is composed of these hybrid electric vehicles. This shows that the MTA has definitely taken steps to ensure reduced carbon emissions.
“Mother Clare Hale Bus Depot Replacement Charrette Report.” .” MTA. http://www.mta.info/nyct/bus/CharretteReport.htm (accessed April 15, 2013).
All of New York City’s buses have been converted to use ultra low sulfur diesel. This change will greatly reduce all future emissions. Previously, all buses ran on diesel, which was providing a burden to the city’s atmosphere. With the switch to ultra low sulfur diesel, the exhaust emissions are greatly reduced. Furthermore, particle filters were installed to filter emissions even further. These two new changes definitely helped the buses become cleaner in general. Both of these regulations were applied to all of the city’s buses by 2000.
Statistics regarding the cleaner emissions were not provided in this public report. However, it does claim that the particle filters are required on all buses to further reduce the emissions. The report also says that all buses from 2000 will only be running on ultra low sulfur diesel. These are important technological improvements that can be applied to the entire fleet. This type of information together with the statistics provided in other reports will show how well the buses are doing with this small improvement.
“MTA New York City Transit.” MTA New York City Transit. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy03osti/33397.pdf (accessed April 15, 2013).
The MTA changed their bus fleet to hybrid electric. They ordered the Orion VII model from Orion International that contains a lithium ion battery rather than lead acid. 125 vehicles were ordered. These buses were the first step from the MTA to make their buses hybrid electric. The Orion VII model also has the patented HybriDrive system that makes it hybrid and electric. The engine is controlled by HybriDrive, which powers the generator. The generator powers the motor that makes the bus move. The generator also recharges the battery placed on top of the vehicles. The battery at the top of the bus is used for acceleration and when the bus needs to climb hills. A braking system is also present where it recovers energy during braking and stores it in the battery. With regenerative braking, it allows most of the energy from the generator to be recovered during the process. This technology is extremely crucial to buses in particular due to the constant stopping. In addition, it also slows down brake wear. Both the engine and the generator make up the hybrid electric system of the vehicle. With this combination, the bus produces very low emissions and has much higher gas mileage. Diesel fuel is only used to run the engine, which in turn powers the generator. The generator also assists in driving the traction motor to make the bus move. The buses also contain a diesel particle filter that further mitigates the exhaust emissions. It is said that these buses are expected to reduce up to 90% in total emissions.
This particular source contains a lot of information regarding hybrid electric buses. Not only does it include plenty of numbers that relate to emissions, it also provides a very detailed picture that contains how the actual engine for these hybrid electric buses operate. The emission statistics show how much cleaner these buses are in relation to their other counterparts. The diagram also clearly labels all the parts of the engine and definitely helps in providing an adequate visual. In addition to the information provided regarding the actual buses themselves, information regarding the future is also presented. Plans of further buses to purchase are briefly mentioned. Plans of the approval of this entire process is also included in which shows when the hybrid electric program became the way it is today.
“Hybrid-Electric Transit Buses.” Hybrid-Electric Transit Buses. www.nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/31668.pdf (accessed April 15, 2013).
The introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses began in 1990. NYCT realized the importance of being environmentally friendly with their vehicles. Thus they purchased two new CNG buses during the year. These buses were only purchased for testing to see if they met the requirements. Again, thirty two CNG buses were purchased to help test these new type of vehicles. After extensive testing, one hundred ninety additional CNG buses were finally purchased. This was the first step for NYCT to begin their reduced emission fleet. Since these CNG were very successful, further decisions were made to purchase hybrid electric buses. Since hybrid technology was still relatively new, prototypes were purchased for testing. Great results were provided and this prompted the acquisition of more hybrid electric buses. These new buses were definitely showing improvements over the traditional ones. Hybrid technology is still evolving and newer and more efficient buses were being built. Since these hybrid buses were satisfactory, more and more were purchased.
This particular report is important because it discusses the beginnings of the transition for diesel fuel buses to ones that are more environmentally friendly. It somewhat provides a timeline of all the reduced emission buses that were purchased. The use of the compressed natural gas buses is the starting point for all future improvements to helping reduce emissions and being more environmentally friendly in general. The report also provides specific numbers for the amount and types of buses that were purchased. Few statistics were mentioned regarding the emissions and how the change to better buses helped decrease emissons.
“Select Bus Service.” MTA. http://www.mta.info/mta/planning/sbs/faqs.htm (accessed April 15, 2013).
Select Bus Service had a few goals in mind. One method was to give buses an exclusive part of the road. These partitions are strictly enforced and prevent other cars from sharing the lanes. These buses are also used to carry people to their location faster and more efficiently. With dedicated lanes on the road, buses spend less time idling and more time reaching their destination. Even though it was not the initial intention for the program, it mitigated pollution and helped conserve fuel. Mostly importantly, the Select Bus Service was not intended to be a method of reducing emissions. However, with many of the features implemented, it resulted in positive results. The use of Select Bus Service will definitely help the battle of reducing emissions.
This report from the MTA talks about a new program that is being released. Even though exact statistics were not provided, the results show that the Select Bus Service does in fact mitigate some emissions. This report shows that in addition to switching vehicles and making improvements, these types of programs are also capable of making progress. This report will mainly demonstrate that making these new types of programs are also capable of helping out the environment. This is the first instance where something like this has been introduced in NYCT’s history and it will aid in proving that there are many changes being made in addition to the technological ones.
