Whether I’ve known you for years or met you more recently, we share an interest in public transit and its future. Most folks agree that the future of public transit is electric.
This newsletter’s purpose is to support the electrification of buses in Oregon, with a focus on social equity. Because electrification is an ecosystem, I’m writing not just for transit agencies, but for the ecosystem.
- Oregon transit agencies (and soon, school districts)
- The electric utilities that will be fueling Oregon’s buses (two already are)
- Social equity experts like The Greenlining Institute and OPAL
- Nonprofits such as Forth, CTE, and VEIC whose mission is transportation electrification (TE)
- OEM’s (original equipment manufacturers) that make e-buses and charging infrastructure
- Oregon Dept of Transportation (ODOT)transit staff that support and coordinate transit in Oregon
- Who I am, and why and how I’m doing this newsletter
- Report on Oregon agencies running/soon to run electric buses
- Invitation to a good diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) event this Wed. July 10
- Link to a key nationwide report on electric buses
- Link to a sustainable funding model for electric buses
- How to help make this newsletter better (or opt out of receiving it)
- I’m worried as hell about climate change
- Which hurts the most vulnerable people the worst, as do diesel emissions
- I’m a person of faith and feel a moral responsibility to do this work
- My agenda is to cultivate a learning community that accelerates the TE of buses
TriMet in Portland now has five New Flyer electric buses, and has committed to a 100% non-diesel fleet by 2040. It’s using both on-route/overhead charging and depot charging at its bus-yard.
A challenging element for all transit agencies (not just TriMet) is social equity. King County Metro shows some best practices here in its feasibility study, i.e. vulnerable communities were included and consulted from the beginning of the project. Another best practice in electrification is workforce training/ development (a topic for a future issue).
As Jeff Allen, Forth’s Executive Director, pointed out at the Roadmap conference in June, our nation’s whole transportation system has been built on inequitable terms. (And I appreciated that he called out, twice, whose land we were on.) We must move to equity as swiftly as we’re transforming our propulsion systems from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric.
SMART in Wilsonville Oregon now has two Proterra buses in service. (In 2017 while at ODOT, I coordinated the Low-No application that landed the needed funds. But these guys are so smart they would have electrified with or without me.)
SMART chose to have Proterra also install its charging infrastructure, with the goal of full accountability on overall performance from a single company. I think that wise. Personally, I’m enamored with the artistic wrap designed by local high school students (find their names on the blue-painted bumper).
Lane Transit District in Eugene is testing three electric buses. Earlier, in 2017-18, it received three BYD buses that turned out to be defective and were never put into service. I respect LTD’s resiliency and persistence despite sharp challenges. Patient problem-solving is a recurring theme I have heard in my conversations with fleet managers nationwide who are transitioning their fleets from diesel to electric.
Josephine Community Transit (JCT) in Grants Pass, southern Oregon, is expecting to receive two Complete Coachworks electric buses at the end of July. JCT plans to use inductive (wireless) charging, the first such technology in the Oregon transit world. More on General Manager Scott Chancey’s thinking on electric buses here.
Hundreds of articles and reports exist on electrifying our transit system, with more coming out daily. For this issue, I’ve picked three (please suggest others).
Battery Electric Bus – State of the Practice: excellent, big-view, synthesis report by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), based on nationwide survey of transit agencies in the process of electrifying.
PAYS model for sustainable, non-grant-based funding for electric bus purchases. Holmes Hummel of Clean Energy Works spoke with much dynamism on this at Roadmap. TriMet has promised to look at it, and I hope many Oregon agencies will do the same.
Alison Wiley (she/her/hers)
I am on the ancestral lands of the Multnomah, Chinook and Cowlitz peoples.Whose land are you on?