Trolleybus in Seattle.

Trolleybuses are rubber-wheeled buses that are powered by overhead wires. They offer a number of advantages over regular buses, but are very rare in the United States.

There are currently only five US cities that operate trolleybuses. They are Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Dayton. Trolleybuses are so rare because they require overhead wires, which are expensive to install, limit bus route flexibility, and are often considered ugly.

On the other hand, compared to normal diesel buses, trolleybuses are quieter, smoother, cleaner, and accelerate faster. They also offer a sense of permanence that normal buses can’t match.

Many of the advantages of trolleybuses come from their power source. Since they run on electricity rather than fossil fuels they emit no fumes, and they accelerate quickly, smoothly, and quietly. However, all those advantages can be duplicated by wire-free electric buses without the cost or trouble of overhead wires.

So why bother with wires?

Because the cost and relative rarity of wires is a sure signal that a transit route will be predictable and permanent. Wires provide the same sort of visual fortification that rail tracks provide. They are a clear signal to riders that they are dealing with a significant and special transit line.

Since so few trolleybuses have been built in recent years, and all the cities that use them have used them for decades, it is difficult to know how much of an effect wires without tracks can have on transit oriented development. Given the push for affordable BRT in many cities, the potential prospect of TOD-inducing buses is something that ought to be explored.

Trolleybuses can shift lanes without disconnecting their wires.

Trolleybuses even offer a significant advantage over rail streetcars. Since they aren’t tied to tracks, flexible trolley poles allow buses to switch lanes in order to go around obstructions. Without tracks to constrain them, trolleybuses mixing in a lane with cars are less likely to be held up by traffic. Additionally, many trolleybuses are built as hybrids and are capable of lowering their poles and running on batteries or fossil fuels as a backup.

It is unfortunate that the so few trolleybus systems survived the 20th Century. Most of them fell victim to the same transit death spiral that destroyed most American streetcar systems.

However, streetcars are enjoying a renaissance because contemporary planners have discovered they can be useful. It may be time for trolleybuses to enjoy a renaissance of their own.

Hello again, blogosphere. I’m now married, honeymoon-ed, and attempting to get back into the swing of things. Since I’ve spent the last two weeks on a planner-geek trip exploring the Pacific Northwest, I may as well share a few thoughts from the experience.

I’ll post pictures of the most interesting things after I’ve had a chance to sort through what I took and upload to flickr, but that will take a few days.

Overall, all three cities are good and I am happy to have finally visited them. Vancouver didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but they were probably unrealistically through the roof. I had more meager expectations for Portland, despite its tremendous hype within the planning world, but found that I liked it the best of the three.

An S4 Metrobus. An S2 is undoubtedly close.

One of the key advantages of DC Circulator buses over WMATA Metrobuses is how they are scheduled. WMATA will soon adopt a more Circulator-like approach for one of its busiest routes.

Circulator buses don’t have a traditional schedule, they simply try to keep about 10 minutes apart from each other, so that riders never have to wait long for a bus. WMATA buses, on the other hand, try to keep to a timetable, which is often impossible and which inevitably leads to “bus bunching, ” in which multiple buses come at the same time and leave large gaps between them.

As a frequent rider of the S-series Metrobuses on 16th Street, I can say with authority that bus bunching is the rule there, rather than the exception. It’s incredibly frustrating to wait 25 minutes for a bus that is supposed to come every few minutes, and then to have 3 buses roll by all in a row. Incredibly frustrating. And it happens all the time.

The good news – the fantastic news – is that with Circulator’s successful example out there proving how timetable-less, headway-based scheduling can work, WMATA is now willing to make its own experiment with the idea. They will first implement headway scheduling on the 90s series bus routes. Rather than futilely hoping to stick on a timetable, this weekend 90s-series buses will begin to try and remain 7 to 8 minutes away from other 90s-series buses.

I’m sure the experiment will prove successful, and hope WMATA quickly shifts to headway scheduling on other high-frequency bus lines, such as 16th Street, 14th Street, and Georgia Avenue.

I am what you might call a transit nerd. I get my kicks geeking out to new trains and new buses. All the cool kids are doing it, right? Anyway, for bus geekery specifically, the very best place in the DC region to observe a steady stream of diverse and cool buses is the corner of 7th and H Streets, at Gallery Place. Every Metrobus imaginable runs by there, plus the Circulator and a host of others. “Accordion buses” in particular, for which I am a giant sucker, are everywhere.

A few weeks ago I camped out at the corner with a pocket camera for maybe 10 minutes, and snapped these pictures. Enjoy.

I am a fan of wrapping trains and buses in advertisements. It adds color and interest to city life. Here are a couple of creative bus wraps that put WMATA’s old Go Green campaign to shame.

Bus in Copenhagen advertising their zoo. Photo source unknown.

Bus with shark mouth doorway. Photo location and source unknown.

Yesterday, for the first time, I saw one of WMATA’s new “Xcelsior” model buses in the wild. Using my cell phone I snapped a quick picture, which is shown at right. (Here is a better picture, from a manufacturer ad.)

These should become much more common sights over the next few years.

Check out this bus station in Cleveland, courtesy friend ofBeyondDC MPK:

Look familiar? Here’s DC’s version, on New York Avenue:

Photo by Elvert Barnes.

I wonder whether Cleveland’s version or DC’s came first, and whether any other cities have one.

Images by Gazette newspapers (top) and flickr user Pinoy Photographer (bottom).

The Bethesda Circulator is a free bus shuttle serving downtown Bethesda. For years the service has operated using a fleet of old-timey fake trolleys, but as of this week the kitsch is out. The Circulator has officially taken the trolleys off the street and replaced them with new buses that look more like a modern tram, and bear a strong resemblance to DC Ciculator buses.

The idea behind the old fake trolleys was that more people would use the route if its vehicles were visibly different from a normal bus. That’s generally true. Unfortunately, fake trolleys have a number of negative effects. Their wood panel seats are uncomfortable, their special parts are difficult and expensive to maintain, and worst of all, they send the message that transit is a theme park ride rather than real modern transportation.

The new buses, on the other hand, accomplish the goal of looking special without any of those negative side effects. They’re comfortable, easy to use, and they look like they belong on the street rather than in Disney World. They’re an improvement in every way.

Now if we could just get Alexandria to ditch theirs too.

This used Fairfax Connector bus could be yours for $19, 900.

How much money are you willing to put down to show up all your transit nerd friends? If you’ve got a few thousand dollars to spare you could be the proud owner of a used transit bus, available through resale website BargainBusNews.com.

The transit buses range in price from $9, 500 (for a 1994 35-footer with half a million miles on its engine) to $510, 000 (for a 2010 BRT model that appears new). There are decades-old antiques available, school buses, double-deckers, coaches, faux trolleys, paratransit vans, just about any kind of bus imaginable.

I know what I want for Christmas.

Above: A traditional electric trolley bus in San Francisco. Below: GM’s wireless electric bus prototype.

Electric buses offer many advantages over traditional fossil fuel buses, but they are more expensive and difficult to run. A new model by General Motors may bring them to the mainstream.

The most obvious advantage of electric buses is environmental, but the fact that they don’t spew any harmful gases into the atmosphere is hardly the only benefit. Electric buses are also quieter and smoother to ride than fossil fuel buses, resulting in a more comfortable experience for riders and fewer negative effects to the neighborhoods buses travel through.

Traditionally to run an all electric bus a transit agency had to install overhead wires. This can actually be an advantage as well, since it displays a sense of permanence to the transit line, which gives trolley buses some of the same economic development advantages of actual trolleys. On the other hand, wires can also be a big negative, both visually and fiscally. Installing and maintaining overhead wires adds so much to the cost of running a transit line that very few cities in the US use them.

But what if it were possible to run an electric bus without the wires? You’d lose that permanence advantage, but the environmental, comfort, and noise advantages would all still apply. And if, after all, wireless streetcars are being developed, why shouldn’t a wireless bus be possible too?

It turns out General Motors is working on one, along with a company called Proterra. Their EcoRide BE-35 model bus is fully electric and runs on lithium-ion battery packs that give it a 40-mile range for every 10-minute charge. The 35-foot, low floor bus design is basically comparable to normal city buses otherwise.

The website doesn’t include details such as whether the bus can run air conditioning (certainly a requirement in a muggy place like Washington), but if they can make the idea work it has potential to revolutionize urban busing.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.