Why don’t the drivers shut off the buses when they are “out of service?” every morning when I walk to work, I pass by a couple of these gas guzzling monstrosities, and as I pass near the end of the parked, still running bus, I always am disgusted at the smell of the pollution belching out of them. Is there some reason that the drivers cant shut the bus off while they are parked, resting, reading, eating or talking on their cell phone, do they REALLY need the bus running. Come on people, small changes are going to yield big results and this is a small change that could save money (hopefully keeping the cost of using the bus down) and also if buses are supposed to help the environment by taking cars off the road, isn’t it kind of ridiculous to have one sit running for long periods of time at the side of the road? Once I saw a driver on the road by the sportsplex in the line of stopped, running buses, and he had his bus shut off, and I thought, why don’t they all have the good sense to do that?
Please can someone tell me if there is a valid reason that they are leaving the buses running while out of service??
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.
I’ve said it a million times…All the suspension, doors and brakes on the buses run on compressed air. When you shut down the bus the air leaks out of the air suspension and can take a while to build back up once re-started but the parking brake can’t be released until a minimum level of air pressure builds and doesn’t happen fast on a lot of units. So you let it idle, hopefully on fast idle to keep the injectors clean and its not wasting as much fuel or polluting as much as you think. Especially with Metro Transit running a bio-diesel mix in the fleet.Now the other reason to keep a bus running is that it may not re-start once the engine is hot. It happens on both the old models and new computer-controlled engines. Metro doesn’t keep standby buses all over the city so your bus is now late because it won’t start, so they send a bus over from Burnside or try and get someone deadheading to the garage to turn around and switch buses. That means the next route the driver is scheduled to drive will also be late, the domino effect has started. Plus the tow truck is going to cost money so any pennies saved by shutting down has now turned into an expensive tow across the harbour.Don’t forget that all the new buses are airconditioned and you need the engine running to keep the air from warming up. Bad enough the systems weren’t built for transit-type use (frequent door openings vs.inter-city use with limited stops) but any down time lets the humidity level build up where the system will take forever to cool down the volume of air in the bus. Same situation in the winter where the bus cools down quickly.
Ex haligonian is my favorite poster on this site….stays away from the pissing contests and answers with great detail about the stuff he is most informed about. I love it. I have always wondered this, and i knew it had to be something like that, as it just couldnt be laziness of turning them buses off and on…thank you sir, and if i could buy you a beer, i would. I love educating myself on things around me that affect me daily.
Homie, how can ex-haligonian be your favorite poster???I thought YOU were your favorite poster…Now I’m REALLY confused…
Homie, your uncle tom called. He wants his alliance with Ex-Haligonian back.
Nice to see Qwerty is trying to stir shit where none exists.