A new, lightweight urban transit bus offers the same crowd of smelly, unwashed passengers with twice the fuel efficiency! Finally we can talk about "green buses" without referring to fungus.
The Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and two private companies have collaborated to design a bus with twice the fuel efficiency of conventional hybrid buses.
The bus uses a special nitrogen-strengthened stainless steel that is supposed to be stronger and stiffer than conventional stainless steel. That means that less is used in the construction of the bus, which means less weight, and that leads to less fuel expenditure.
These fuel-efficient buses are probably going to be popular with urban transit authorities that are struggling to meet increased fuel costs, even if they don't have to worry about carbon emissions these days.
Of course, all the work they put into reducing the weight of the buses may end up being futile if they're used in neighborhoods full of fat passengers who refuse to walk anywhere.
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