Was I WRONG About Electric Buses?

EEVblog's video:

"Bus Electrification: A comparison of capital costs" by Martin Wright:

Background image by Patrick Federi from Unsplash:

[esleynopemos]

Watching Europeans and Australians argue over electric buses vs trolley buses, meanwhile I'm in America asking for any buses please...

[SoapSoapCrayon]

It's weird to hear an Australian complain about Trams. I guess he's a Sydneysider. Trams are fantastic in Melbourne. We have a pretty walkable city, and free Tram transport through most of the City now.

[tapio_m]

After seeing that "tram power lines are an eyesore" video I went and walked about in Helsinki trying to actively think whether the tram power lines are noticeable and admittedly they are noticeable UP UNTIL one minute later when I have completely forgot about them again.

The central city such as Helsinki is not a natural landscape. It's all man made. Without the powerlines I am in the middle of a city full of man made buildings. With power lines I am in the middle of a city full of man made buildings. Nothing changes. The lines are fine.

[LunaKoops]

As a city council member in a city that has battery electric buses, I can say that the mass of BEBs poses another problem in older cities. Roads aren't built for such heavy vehicles, causing vibrations and older buildings, particularly those close to the road, are vulnerable to those vibrations.

[MrMediator]

Kinda funny to see 2 mindsets collide - first of someone from country where public transport is priority and second where personal cars are. As someone from region which was built for public transport (I live in a city with longest trolleybus line in the world) yet with huge influx of car owners and attempt to adapt, we got worst of both - underfunded public network with huge traffic

[gyorgymatenagy]

EEVblog: You have to criticise electric cars too!
Adam: That's...why I'm here.

[Nokdef]

Adam, I'd love to see a video with a "Dream Scenario" city, where you plan a city and explain the thought process behind your decisions.

[gustavgnoettgen]

I'm German, I grew up seeing tram wires every other week or so. You can put them everywhere without much trouble. They never bothered me, they don't ruin the cities. I always see them as a special city thing just like subways, rather a visible sign of a somewhat prestigious place. But... I'm part of your audience so maybe it's just me.

[MyGraveDancer]

I live in Ukraine in 265k city. The regular trolleybusses are doing the majority of public transport here and they do their job very well. If you design the routes well, you don't need electric buses at all.
Also, the argument about the battery fire is fascinating. It's like saying there's no difference between a firecracker and a powder keg explosion.

[TheGlassgubben]

I've lived in Gothenburg, the city with the largest tram network in northern Europe, for almost a decade. The most notable visual pollution is the often complete overcast, caused by inversion, i.e. air pollution from burning fossil fuels. I'm very happy when I get to see the tram wires, because that means that the sky is less grey than normal.

[maxrei]

Before I ever notice all the wires above my head I notice all the cars, parking lots, noise and asphalt around me. A single lane could accommodate all the bus traffic needed for the transportation of people that would normally use... like three lanes for individual cars.
Getting rid of those lanes would be a HUGE win in terms of space for all the inhabitants. I'm all in on that and I don't care wether or not those few busses use gas or something else. We've gotten so used to seeing grey asphalt everywhere that we can't even imagine what it would look like without it. This whole conversation is actually not as important as it might seem. No matter what busses they use, every technology would be a win, just get those busses out there!
I'd rather have three busses burn down every now and then than 50 teslas with the same capacity and I'd rather have wires above my head than another traffic light that prioritizes cars over people.

[MrManafon]

Just to give some context: That paper at the end is from Belgrade, the city I used to live in. GSP is super-duper full of nepotism, and papers like this one are used to justify making purchasing decisions from private owned companies (friend-of-a-friend type of thing) all the time. The city is going through what we call "Dubaification" nowadays, and this paper is just one of many many similar papers. In fact - EKO 1 line was explicitly such a project, a test line, that I rode many times, that didn't work 60% of the time and used a weird route through the city center - the idea was (openly) for foreign investors to see how modern we are.

[bezpansky]

During last winter in Poland, there were photos of electric buses emitting smoke in Katowice. As it turned out, they were heated using oil, because otherwise, they either would not be heated or they would have no range to cover the routes.

[javarivian]

i grew up in vietnam where every street was lined with tangled messes of wires(likely a massive safety hazard, at thirteen i moved to the US. lived there for two years, before moving back to vietnam again for two years until finally arriving at where i am now, the US, and i can say that powerlines have not crossed my mind at all in the five years of my transitions.

[sID-]

When trolleybuses were replaced with electric buses in Moscow, schedules on these routes were totally broken. Electric buses need to stay on last stop for a while to charge up. So you need to buy even more (more than trolleybuses before) electric buses to compensate that.

[darbling]

Australians being lazy is in our culture.
"But the buses will explode!"
"Yeah, nah, she'll be roight, mate"

[brianwong]

One problem I remember with copper wiring in poorer, larger countries was the rate at which it got stolen. So some areas might struggle with the cost of replacing the lines unless they make it out of materials that don't resell easily. The internet in Kenya went down a lot less with fiber optic lines.

[Aiyoros]

It seems that electric advocates, always forgets that the wheels suffer a lot more due to the added weight. That's why I love trams, steel to steel (or steel to iron) traction, less wear and less power to move the vehicle. In short term they are very expensive, but in the long run it becomes cheaper.

[Fusilier]

Although EEV is a good electrical engineer, he's not an civil engineer, so the human factor must be accounted for, such as making the electric bus, powering that bus, providing lithium batteries, and provide reliable transportation for urban centres, technology should not be hostile to the people who use it.

[AntekElektronik]

I live in a city with trolleybuses, and it's amazing! It's quiet and accelerates really quickly in comparison to others