In an effort to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution, a growing number of U.S. cities have introduced electric buses, and some are already committing to go 100% electric. In July Los Angeles METRO, the second largest transit agency in the country, voted to transition its entire bus fleet to zero emission electric vehicles by 2030.
Read about the Los Angeles decision in this Sierra Club post:
Houston METRO currently has a total bus fleet of 1,250 buses. Of these 1,200 are diesel, and 50 are CNG (natural gas). Houston METRO did try out an electric bus for a 90 day pilot program, but has not yet purchased any electric buses. The average lifespan of the current diesel buses is 12 years, so they are replaced at a rate of approximately 100 per year. It would therefore take 12 plus years to replace the entire fleet.
There would be significant environmental benefits if Houston METRO were to start replacing its diesel bus fleet with zero emission electric vehicles. In addition to reducing carbon emissions, there would be reduced particulate matter and other harmful diesel emissions, and noise reductions - all a benefit to neighborhoods, drivers, and passengers. Electric buses are initially more expensive, but more than recover that extra cost by reducing long term maintenance and fuel costs.
Please encourage Houston METRO to adopt electric buses by submitting a comment at the agency website. Here is a direct link to their comment form:
https://www.ridemetro.org/Pages/METRONext.aspx
It will also help if you send a similar comment in support of electric buses to Mayor Turner. His email address is sylvester.turner@houstontx.gov
For those interested, here is an Electric Bus Analysis for New York City Transit which covers various details and benefits of converting to electric bus:
For questions for comments on this article, contact Frank Blake at frankblake@juno.com