New York City yellow cabs go green »
Posted By Karina 1 year, 4 months ago in StyleNew York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to announce Tuesday that he will order the city's entire taxi fleet be converted to gas-electric hybrids by 2012, sources close to the mayor told CNN.
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Karina
Karina Longworth blogs about film at Spout.com. She co-founded the film blog Cinematical in March 2005, whilst simultaneously completing an MA in Cinema Studies ...
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dplinker1 year, 4 months ago
Why is it that hybrid equals "green?" They're all still burning gasoline. The only improvement turns rolling energy into electricity when braking. And for that you have a pile of batteries that you have to replace regularly. Battery manufacture and transportation is hardly environmentally "free."
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SantaM1 year, 4 months ago
kind of-
i absolutely agree that the hybrid thing is far from a solution. it is setting the bar pretty low if we are still willing to accept 40 mpg city as "green."
But as far as converting the rolling energy into electricity when breaking... they do it with a big alternator, just like a regular car, that recharges a bigger battery, just like the smaller battery that is in every car. it doesnt need to be changed that often. the technology's been used by the railroad for seventy some odd years now, and they do it for a simple reason... through they're traveling long-long distances they discovered that its more efficient.
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invest071 year, 4 months ago
There are a few facts about hybrids that are not well known:
1. They run on lead acid batteries which weigh a ton and have all sorts of nasty things inside them.
2. The batteries have to be replaced about every 50K years, at a current cost of $3-4K.
3. The batteries must be disposed of which is a fair expense due to all the nasty stuff inside. Also an environmental hazard in landfills.
4. The batteries are wired in series which means there are several hundred volts running through those wires. Should a battery short to the frame in an accident, the entire car is live for several hundred volts. My guess is the paramedics will say "not me" when it comes time to cut someone out of a hybrid.
Wonder if all the greenies who love their Prius so much know all this?
A much better solution would be to convert the taxis to run on propane. It is cleaner than gas/electrid hybrids, costs less and the entire fleet could be done in less than a month.
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UBCONFUSE1 year, 4 months ago
Hybrid and NYC Cab driving habits do not mix. Wide open throttle starts then slamming on brakes is wasteful of energy. The Hybrid car is just a poster to make Bloomburg look like he is doing something. In the end it is just another waste of tax payer money and another excuse to get Federal dollars. Shameless showboating that helps only politicians.
Second point. According to Al Gore, by 2012, NYC will be under 200 feet of water. Maybe you can order an amphibious Hybrid Crown Vic?
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joeblowe1 year, 4 months ago
I think this time, maybe YOU be confused. Stop and go traffic is exactly where hybrids are the MOST good. They have good torque at low RPM and regenerative braking to recover the jack-rabbit start energy. They usually get BETTER mileage around town than they do on the highway. Sign me up for one of those Crown Vics right now - sounds like a blast. Oh -- who takes Al seriously, anyway? I was recently in the Caribbean. Water levels have NOT gone up. Any.
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tiredofnonsense1 year, 4 months ago
lol, great response, mabey the taxi companies can invest in hybrid boats instead.
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sixshot1 year, 4 months ago
i think you have gasoline confused with cng or propane lpg also called gas?
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CrazyRay1 year, 4 months ago
Cabs' engines run constantly, this will just make the battery wear out even faster and be a costly repair. Do hybrids come listed with expectant battery life either in miles or hours?
How efficient would a hybrid be in the non-stop-and-go traffic of NY? They always rate the vehicle on "highway" miles, so it's obviously not as efficient (as are regular vehicles) in the city.
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tiredofnonsense1 year, 4 months ago
not really, the engine will only run when the battery starts to run down, stop and go is okay with electric motors, you kill the electric and the engine stops, you only use power when they floor the petal.
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joeblowe1 year, 4 months ago
Considering the number of cabs in NYC, this should represent a significant increase in air quality. Purely electric cabs SOUNDS good, but they would require MORE batteries, and even then they couldn't go a 12 hour shift without a recharge. This maybe isn't perfect, but I'd have to say, at least someone is doing SOMETHING to make an improvement. Mayor Daley, you paying attention?
And -- I'm pretty sure that the batteries are SUPPOSED to last 100000 miles, and they should be significantly recyclable.
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ryan6011 year, 4 months ago
Agreed, joeblowe. I'm skeptical about how much of an improvement these hybrid cabs will have towards consumption of oil/energy (but will be happy to be proven wrong!), however there will probably be a marked improvement in air quality.
Combine this with proposed measures by Bloomberg to cut the number of autos allowed in the city, and maybe trying to do something about the exhaust from the cities buses (maybe hybrid buses?), and Blooomberg may go down in history as the mayor who did the most to improve air quality in NYC.
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spikecwc1 year, 4 months ago
"Purely electric cabs SOUNDS good, but they would require MORE batteries,.."
My plan would electrify the roads, with contact points just below the surface that would not electrocute people who walked on them. The batteries inside the vehicles would only be needed on the non electrified roads.
Harnessing the wind with massive wind generators in areas of constant wind (yes, there are many) would make the electricity virtually free. Only the startup would be expensive. After that, it would be virtually free.
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WCFIELDS1 year, 4 months ago
Looks like the cabbies are going to take it in the shorts for this cheap political announcement.
The unleaded gas ruined my MBZ's engine back in the day. Lots of happy grinning yuppies running around then just happy as pigs in sh1t cause they "got the lead out". None ofem helped me buy a another car or engine.
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_-m-_1 year, 4 months ago
oy. it's not their fault you ruined your engine.
whatever made you think you could use unleaded fuel in a vehicle that used regular to begin with, without using a lead additive?
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tiredofnonsense1 year, 4 months ago
Maybe the mayor can pay for the conversion out of his own pocket.
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architekker1 year, 4 months ago
NNNnoooooo! Stick with gasoline! It's better to pay 5 dollars a gallon than to environmentally destruct producing the hybrids. That's the liberal sayings. Why don't they just make h20 cars. GM made the h20 hydrogen cars but decided to wait till gas is completely out. What a joke! The world will end before you will have 100% enviromentally free vehicles. What about robot horses! Are you ready to go back to electrifying western with electrifying cowboy suits? Here come the electrifying billy the kid with electrical surge powers.
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Hawklead1 year, 4 months ago
Propane has a lot to commend it. It's cleaner, and allows the engine to run longer between oil changes, thus reducing lubricant/wast oil disposal. It is fairly easy to service compared to LNG, and the conversion is simple and cheap. Many big cities worldwide utilize it in their public trasportation systems with a fair amount of success.
Lets see, cheap, simple and effective, Sorry too politically incorrrect to be used.
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leftyrh1 year, 4 months ago
natural gas it the better answer to the problem. I also noticed he didn't say anything about the city owned and operated transportation system being ordered to change over-"WHY". The overall cost will cripple most companies. Is this just another way for the city to get more bus or train riders?
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joeblowe1 year, 4 months ago
Perhaps, but the city retains and regulates the cab tags. If you can't get a tag, you can't run a taxi service. Apparently if you are required to have a hybrid to get a tag, that's it. I don't agree that it's fair, necessarily, but it's how the Taxi industry is regulated. I suppose it helps keep people from getting ripped off, but it also cuts competition. So - it's a private business and they can certainly refuse to get hybrids. They just won't get a tag and therefore can't operate as a taxi business in New York. Same in Chicago and other cities.
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spikecwc1 year, 4 months ago
Once every two or three years Bloomberg does or says something that makes sense. So don't wait around for any more sensibility from him for quite some time.
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WCFIELDS1 year, 4 months ago
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? ANS. NOTHING. The real goal here is excitement. Greenies, yuppies, happy silly folks just love the thrill of coming up with Dandy ideas that cost THEM little or nothing. The point is not to save gas, free Zimbabwe (28 yrs ago) or fix Darfur, ad naseum. The happy idea is to be excited, meet new silly friends, shout at the evil people With your new friends, get that warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy from "doing Good". Ain't life great? And it don't cost them a dime.
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tiredofnonsense1 year, 4 months ago
Just watch out for the taxi drivers or 250cc will be road kill
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0gramstransfat1 year, 4 months ago
What the auto manufacturers need to do is go back to that California mandate that President Bush-whack crushed that required the auto makers to produce an emission-free vehicle. GM/Saturn, Honda and Toyota all produced versions of electric vehicles that were available in California in the 1990's. Once Bush killed the mandate, it kept the notion of an emission free vehicle from spreading into other states and the auto makers rounded up their electric vehicles and destroyed them all. The only evidence that they existed are the Electric Vehicle charging stations in public places. The technologies exist to make these kinds of vehicles but since the auto makers would make less money on them over time (no tune-ups, oil changes, etc.) and the big oil companies won't make a dime off of them, we're told they're not feasible. Cars have been using the same old combustion engine designed before most of us were even born. How is that progess in the auto making industry?
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billtheirishman1 year, 4 months ago
rite i have a solution. follow my instructions carefully. lets gather up all the native americans left. have them reproduce for 10 years, like loadsss. so there is millions of them running about. then encourage them to stampede buffalo's at the white house scaring away all them silly men. they will then set up teepee things inside and will be the new administration. proabably due to lack of administration the economy will collapse and the oil companies wont be able to afford oil. so there is your oil polution problems gone. and i was able to think of that in under a minute. now that people wont be able to get jobs to feed their family they will then inherit the native american ways living off the land and all that caiper. from now on ther ewould only be silly tribe wars within america not affecting the rest of the world. everyone would be happier.
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tiredofnonsense1 year, 4 months ago
"now that people wont be able to get jobs to feed their family they will then inherit the native american ways living off the land and all that caiper."
and we can say goodby to all the forests as people cut the wood to make fires and for land to grow food.
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tiredofnonsense1 year, 4 months ago
They probably don't believe in guns, will have to use a kitchen knife and falay themselfs.
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sixshot1 year, 4 months ago
okay pesonally i think the greenhouse effect is bs but there are other better reasons to go down the alterative fuel road 1 photochemical smog i belive this is a major cause of cancer and other respitory illness.2 arabs without money become a non issue would america bee in iraq if it wasn't for oil.3 noise pollution evs don't make any.4 i would really love to see an oil company director panhandling for money on the street won't happen but i can dream can't i .altrenative fuels are just around the corner but it will take time and public support.
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MetalNun1 year, 4 months ago
GregD mentioned biodiesel. I have a friend who converted a regular diesel car (I think it was an older BMW or Mercedes) to run on used vegetable oil! Local restaurant owners are happy to give him their rank, stale old frying oil for free (saves them the trouble of disposing it) and the exhaust smells like french fries. I'm not sure how this would work on a large scale but he says it's working great for him.
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Methysmenos1 year, 4 months ago
I run a taxi in Canada.
Propane conversion kits are expensive.
The fuel mileage is crap but used to compensate for the price of propane at the pump, not any more.
Propane tanks are heavy and cumbersome. I wouldn't want to see one blow in a rear end colision. Not likely but not impossible.
Propane is very dry, little lubrication for the engine.
Screws your engine large over time.
The heater hoses are connected to the propane condenser to warm it, in the winter there is very little heat for the interior of your car. Maybe not a prob in Cali but not a great move in Canada in the winter.
Isn't propane a by product of the processing of crude oil.
Use more propane, process more crude oil.
Propane is great for the bar b cue, not much else.
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RASSRASS1 year, 4 months ago
Considering the large number of yellow cabs in NYC, and the amount of traveling they have to do to keep up with the rather large fees that they have to pay to get the benefits of the yellow cab name, I can only say "WAY TO GO NYC!".
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Moparman1351 year, 4 months ago
I must say that i agree with what most everyone is saying on this announcement. This political move done in New York is not solving any problems and is in fact going to create a whole new set of problems that will have to be solved in the future. Hybrids themselves never were supposed to be a permanent fix to the oil problem. instead of spending millions of dollors on hybrids in New York they could spend that money on making a fleet of cabs that run on E-85 instead. In the future they could make a fleet that runs on hydrogen when the technology is more readily available. there are multiple cities in the u.s. that are already using better technologies than this such as biodiesl city buses. People cannot settle for this solution because it is not a solution.
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