257% Improvement - 4.5 to 11.6 MPG
 

A few years ago the old "iconic" London Bus (the Routemaster) was phased out as it was getting a little old (being first made in 1954) in favour of modern alternatives. The replacement "bendy" buses proved unpopular because they just don't fit in the street space available. And now they are being phased out.

Their replacement is an Electric / Diesel hybrid double-decker (i.e. with an upper floor) which gets 11.6 MPG compared to the 4.5 of the bendy ones.

Bendy buses here, the new bus is here.

And a video of experts "drifting" buses, narrated by a man who calls his hands "hends" - from when we in Britain were "top nation". ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVq9Gk08lLo

EDIT - the new "Routemaster"

http://orderorder.files.wordpress.co.../boris-bus.jpg

That's 64% too high :P Or 100%-points if you will.

Too big for London, but about 1/3rd of all busses here are of the bendy variety !

Here in Belgium these bendy busses drive through the smallest of villages.

Am I mistaken or is that Boris at the wheel of the new Routemaster ?

Peter.

Warsaw also has them in large numbers. The only thing that kinda works when the rail and tram systems are neglected:rolleyes:
A 18-meter articulated bus fits on a small roundabout (as long as the center is paved;)), while the shorter yet unarticulated 15-meter busses don't.

Mercedes has a 20-meter, 4-axle articulated bus.

Warsaw had a doubledecker for the tourist line, but it had to go through lots of red tape just to be able to drive, because it was 6cm too tall (406cm vs the 4m limit).

The best improvements are usually found on the worst vehicles.
Nice write up.

You are correct - its lucky I don't write software for banks.

No, hang on...:eek:

There have been many many complaints about safety but the stats have not been all that reliable IMHO - like I have any room to tap about maths.. :rolleyes:. They were briefly tried in Edinburgh but the streets in the centre (the old and new town) are narrower than a lot of London's.

Yep, thats the blonde bombshell himself ;) He promised to get rid of the bendy ones in his first term and has managed it - just about.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh7fQz4xzW4

some other big boys at play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kdyO2Nb8I

I worked briefly (when I was a student) for Leyland - not the ill fated car manufacturing concern, but the highly profitable commercial vehicle makers who were conned by uk.gov into buying the car making bit.

At the time they were pioneering the use of various technologies such as a regen braking and acceleration assist system based on compressed air - batteries were even less developed in those days.

They did unfortunately combine that with a fixed head diesel engine of very poor quality - a case of a reasonable idea done badly.

Also, switching to a hybrid drivetrain is worthwhile in a vehicle which exclusively does low-speed driving with frequent stops. I wonder if the new busses are lighter than the old ones?

If only I knew who they were... ;)

I recall reading of a similar method for regen using high pressure hydraulics , again , well before battery systems were being used.

Simply explained: The bus had a small hydraulic pump attached to the driveshaft.

When coming to a stop the momentum of the bus would spin the pump which would push hydraulic fluid into a container which held gas separated by a diaphragm. The gas was compressed as the fluid was pumped in.

Departing from the stop the fluid was released from the container back through the hydraulic pump to help propel the bus along.
When the gas pressure was used up the engine was started.

The next stop it was repeated.

There were two drawbacks:
Precision and expensive engineering for the pump and the physical size of the containers needed.

Peter.

If cities were planned better the road before the bus stop could be v-shaped. When the down slope begins the bus cuts the fuel and coasts down the hill without losing speed, then the last bit is up hill so the bus loses the speed quickly for the stop. This way the kinetic energy can be used up propelling the bus forward, without much loss in average speed, and without expensive hybrid technology in every buss.

Much like John Stewart and Steven Colbert, I find them to be very informative. As one friend put it, "They are news masquerading as entertainment, while many official news programs are entertainment masquerading as news." As odd as it may sound, I find Top Gear to be less biased and more objective than Car & Driver and (as of late) MotorTrend.

I'm afraid with London (and Edinburgh to some extent) the planning aspect is about 1000 years too late.

And indeed, hydraulic hybrid systems are in commercial production. They're currently aimed at applications that do a lot of stop & go, and also use hydraulics for other functions, like this garbage truck: Autocar launches E3 hydraulic hybrid garbage truck

As for the hybrid bus, I wonder why they don't put overhead charging contacts (like for the electric tram systems that are used in many European cities) at the bus stops.

Congarts Arragonis!
You always find a way to show oneupmanship!

Instead of a garish county fair atmosphere w giggling fans on a dirty soupbowl of a track; you bring a full real road course w real drivers, though the verbal was a little long in the tooth; the close up carnage, air under tires, etc..., more than made up for it.

You really killed me w the Formula 1 style starting lights.

The only way to improve would be to somehow have tethered passengers running back and forth to the high sides sidecar like!

I hope nobody minded my inflictation of juvenile fun, as it was my 1st U-tube image transfer ever! (we all have to start somewhere )

We have articulated busses, and light rail car articulation in Portland.
Very weird to observe from the inside for the first time.!

Love the downhill dip just before a bus stop idea! If such intelligent planning could ever get beyond politics, rivalries, and red tape; imagine how intelligently our cities, and countries COULD be run!!!

My apologies, I was just trying to add to the laughs. :thumbup:

I shall now ignore all posts for a week in case my bad person comes out again. :turtle: