Friday, July 16, 2021

Most Under-Reported Story Of The Day -- July 16, 2021

Updates

July 24, 2021: California experience

Original Post

Philadelphia's Proterra Fleet in complete shambles -- FreeBeacon. Link here

  • the problem: the chassis can't support the battery weight; and,
  • battery life was insufficient for the city's bus routes -- are you kidding me?
    • the former -- could have been understandably missed, but the latter -- underestimating the energy required for these routes?
  • $24 million worth of Proterra buses taken off the road
  • two dozen+ buses unveiled in Philadelphia in 2016 -- now out of operation
  • entire fleet removed
  • the cost of Proterra's electric buses has gained attention in recent weeks. On a recent trip by Biden to La Crosse, Wis., it was revealed that two buses the city ordered from Proterra for $1.5 million in 2018 have still not been delivered. Over the past five days, Proterra’s stock price has fallen over 25 percent.
  • not reported: how much water and how long it would take to put out a Philly bus fire? LOL. 

Chariots on fire: just a reminder. Link here. I had completely forgotten this link. Great readers. With great memories.

What I'm watching now:

  • The Tall Men, 1955
  • on TCM
  • noted for its cinematography, set in Montana but filmed in Sierra de Órganos National Park, Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Mexico; snow sequences in Sun Valley, ID
  • Clark Gable and Jane Russell 

3 comments:

  1. Proterra busses have over 20 million miles under their belts. They run fine in many other cities. Philadelphia destroys everything including concrete bridges and sidewalks, Train stations, bus stops - other normal cities don't have this problem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be interesting to see Albuquerque's experience five years from now.

      Delete
    2. Twenty million miles. It would be interesting to put this number in context.

      The average urban US bus route according to government statistics is 5.6 miles.

      Let's call it six miles.

      Let's assume six trips per hour for a 12-hour day.

      6 x 6 x 12 = 432 miles / day / bus

      432 x 365 days = 158K miles / year / bus

      Assume ten buses in each city = 1.6 million miles per year.

      Ten cities: 16 million miles. So 20 million miles, one year?

      I honestly don't know. Just trying to put the number in context.

      Delete