You’ve got to admit it’s pretty rare to be able to share common experiences with the flesh of your flesh decades apart like that. My kids will never know the agony of dialling a phone number with lots of nines and zeroes on a rotary phone; remember when you got the sixth digit wrong and had to start over? Ugh.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
Today, we know better, not just about what heavy fuel does to our personal breathing organs but about how much it damages the environment, too.Article contentto get us to switch our diesel school buses to electric ones, I said to myself: if that ain’t the juiciest, lowest piece of juicy low-hanging fruit I ever saw. Yes! Let’s gradually replace the fleet with electric buses! At the moment there are only about 20 EVs out of Ontario’s 20,000 yellow buses. I call this ample room for improvement.
I’m almost not exaggerating. People make polite noises, like Vicky Kyriaco, Ottawa Student Transportation Authority’s general manager telling me by email that operators are free to purchase any bus that’s designed in accordance with the relevant safety standards. One politician — NDP MPP Joel Harden — attended Ecology Ottawa’s Feb. 22 webinar on electric buses. But otherwise it’s been way too quiet.
With what money? I’m all for this but with Conservative provincial governments across Canada cutting education funding, where schools can’t afford things already…you expect them to be able to afford an entire overhaul infrastructure for them… what about the strain on power grid
Maybe focus on actually getting kids to school constisty and reliably. Same as public transit.
Currently in PEI attending Canada Winter Games, using EV school buses for transportation. No issues.
rexglacer I would not want my kid on a bus that has a tendency to spontaneously combust. In seconds .
Throw in some winter tires while they’re at it so kids can actually get to school when it snows.
Oh please. They get cancelled enough as it is. Imagine the cold batteries refusing to start on top of that? What a joke.
And what will you do when it’s minus 40 and a bus load of kids are stuck in the side of the road with no heat? Please use some common sense when it comes to kids lives!
This is a green revolution I can get behind. There have been numerous studies indicating the devastating effects of diesel fuel. Long time coming if your ask me.
I love writers who really know nothing. I am a school bus driver, and as of 2022 all new school buses are required to have seat belts for kids. Secondly, buses go through a lot of abuse, especially on rural routes, so EVs may not be able to handle it. Lastly, the expense.
LOL... let's spend millions cause most people in Ottawa live off of tax dollars anyway.
Please add all-wheel drive to the list! Perhaps it can reduce the number of 'snow day'.
Ask her to put up some money for it…
And I think everyone should get a pony too. I’m not sure how it will work or be funded but not my problem, I’m an ideas guy.
rexglacer You will need an internal combustion engine to keep the children warm on the bus. With such a large cabin area and all the windows, the heating from the battery may not allow the bus to finish its routes for a day! Examine the science before virtue.
Pelletier should just shut it with his bs.
You don't seem to worried about the child labour that goes into creating the batteries for your stupid electric vehicle ideas
No thanks. There are enough interruptions as it is, and EVs will cost us many times what the old buses are costing.
When you can have a bus drive for 12 hours on battery power , then you can switch to electric.
Not much fumes when your parked for 2 cm of snow
Where does this false logic of electric buses being green come from? The CO2 generated to build these things and mine the minerals, not to mention end of life recycling issues makes these things far from green.
While the idea is sound over time, excuse me but who the hell are you to tell private companies what to do?
This idea is not feasible. They would need to buy twice as many buses bc once the kids are dropped off, the buses won't have enough time to recharge before the end of the school day, esp in winter, when the cold forces a reduction in range and longer recharge times.
People out here really endorsing our kids standing in clouds of diesel fumes, huh.
Who’s going to pay for that
Adding many other reasons for the school buses to get cancelled