Points of Interest | Green Energy News

December 14 2003 – Vol.8 No.38

POINTS OF INTEREST.

A weekly collection of websites worth visiting.

In the name of ever increasing sales and profits automakers do everything they can to make the automobile experience appealing.

Advertisements often show cars and SUV’s traveling at high-speed down an unrealistic lonely road against a breathtaking backdrop. Designers make sure cars follow trends in style, even color. New cars are quiet, comfortable. The seats in many cars are more comfortable than the chairs people have in their homes. Amenities and gadgets abound in new cars.

But in the real world cars live in a less than glamorous, rather rough world.

Constant congestion, stop-and-go traffic in many areas adds unnecessary stress and wastes otherwise productive time. Bad and outdated roads and intersections are difficult and dangerous to negotiate. Fellow drivers are rarely kind and considerate. It’s Me First on the highways.

All too often driving has become a chore, a nasty experience. Yet people remain under the marketing spell of the automakers.

Still, thoughtful planners hope that they can lure people away from cars to more efficient and sane mass transit.

Aside from creating a magic potion, how do they break the spell automakers have over consumers?

Make mass transit glamorous. Make trains, buses, light rail vehicles pretty on the outside. Make the insides attractive, warm, roomy and comfortable. Build weather proof stops and stations. And show people how while riding you can relax, snooze, read, or if you must, do a little work while somebody else gets you to your destination.

Advanced Public Transportation Systems of The Netherlands is in the process of creating Phileas, a high quality public transport system.

Phileas (from the Jules Verne novel Around the World in 80 Days) is a version of a bus rapid transit system that will use high-style, articulated hybrid electric buses on guideways controlled by magnetic sensors embedded in the road.

The first series of buses, due to be operating in 2004, will use propane (LPG) engine generators to provide electricity for motors at each wheel, with the exception of the front. A battery pack is included for regenerative braking. The setup creates an all-wheel drive system - good for foul weather travel - and allows buses to be close to the ground for easy entry and exit .

Impco has been the supplier of the LPG engine management system for Phileas which will begin operation on its first run in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

A major advantage of Phileas as a mass transit system comparable in capacity with light rail, is that it can operate on its own dedicated set of roadways for fast, punctual trips, or it can travel along with regular traffic if it has to. Visit Impco at http://www.impco.ws Phileas at http://www.phileas.nl and http://www.apts-phileas.com/