With Maryland subject to some of the worst air pollution in the
country, new steps are being taken to clean the air. Governor Martin
O'Malley has declared all new MTA buses to be hybrids.
Adam May reports the state tested the buses, and they liked them so much, they are making the switch.
The days of dirty diesel buses are coming to an end.
"Our
planet faces global challenges, rising gas costs, rising sea levels and
rising concerns over the future our children will inherit," said Lt.
Governor Anthony Brown.
The new hybrid-diesel electric buses are part of a bigger goal.
"Creating
a cleaner, greener future before all of us burn up this planet while we
burn up the last drops of fossil fuel," said O'Malley.
MTA will have 40 on the road by next year and convert 75 percent of their fleet by 2014.
The hybrids cut emissions by 90 percent and increase fuel efficiency by 23 percent.
All
of the new buses are equipped with racks to encourage people to ride
their bike to bus stops rather than drive their car. The buses also
have a new feature where they shut off automatically, if they've been
idling more than 10 minutes.
Still, these buses are not enough for some advocates of public transportation.
"It's
great that Maryland is putting more clean buses on the road, but
Congress needs to do much more to fund public transportation," said
Johanna Neumann with Maryland PIRG.
O'Malley says the federal government is preventing a full switch to hybrid buses sooner.
"The federal government doesn't like us to retire buses until we have squeezed the 12-year life out of them," said O'Malley.
The buses cost $200,000 more than regular buses. With gas prices so high, though, the difference is made up in just two years.
Governor O'Malley also switched his personal car to a GMC Tahoe hybrid last week.
