Seattle’s Metro Transit
October 10th, 2006 by Mollie
One of the most beneficial things we can do to curtail the damage being done to the environment is to reduce our carbon footprint. Automobiles are one of the primary sources of the man-made greenhouse gases that are causing global warming because the majority of cars on the road burn fossil fuels in order to make them run. It makes sense then, that one of the best things we can do to bring health to our planet is to minimize the number of automobiles on the road everyday. There are a couple of practical ways to accomplish this:
- Walk.
- Ride a bike.
- Carpool (preferably with someone who has a hyrbid or very fuel efficient car).
- Take public transportation.
One of the first things I noticed as I began to walk around this city was the buses. I could have noticed them because there was not much of a bus system in the West Suburbs of Chicago where I just moved from. However, that was not the reason. I noticed them because many were labeled as hybrid diesel-electric or biodesiel buses. Metro’s plan is “to have 100% of their fleet ‘clean air’ equipped by 2010″ and they are well on their way.
By switching from the Breda buses to hybrid diesel-electric buses they were able to accomplish the following:
- Particulate Matter (PM) reduced by 90 percent over the cleanest diesel buses now in Metro’s fleet
- Carbon Monoxide (CO) reduced by 90 percent over the cleanest diesel buses now in Metro’s fleet
- Hydrocarbons (HC) reduced by 90 percent
- Carbon Dioxide (CO2) reduced by 40-60 percent
- Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) reduced by 50 percent
With their use of biodiesel they are hoping to help “open up the local biodiesel market to other consumers, such as school districts, small trucking firms and even individual car owners”.
Biodiesel is a fuel that is made from natural ingredients, such as the seed crops that are used to make vegetable oil. Metro has committed to pilot the use of a blend of five percent biodiesel and 95 percent Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) over the next two years, and is already using the fuel at its Ryerson and Bellevue bases. It hopes to power its entire fleet of more than 1,200 diesel buses with the biodiesel by the end of 2006.
Ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel is a specially refined fuel with significantly lower sulfur content than regular highway diesel. The sulfur content ranges from 15 to 30 parts per million. Regular diesel has a maximum of 500 parts per million of sulfur. Other than sulfur content, ultra- low sulfur diesel meets the same specifications as regular highway diesel.
I have taken the bus a couple of times when it has been too far to walk and it has been very convenient and easy. Usually, the buses are filled to the brim with people and in certain areas of downtown Seattle you can take advantage of the free-fair zone. I also love that while on the bus you get to see a diverse mix of people using the same service and sitting/standing next to each other.