LTLFTcomposite wrote:Heard from a friend all six of Park City's Proterra buses were out of service today on account of snow.
I guess I'm struggling to parse that statement. I can think of a bunch of different interpretations. Here are the ones that jump to mind:
Possible reasons caused by limitations of the buses themselves:
L1) Proterra buses do not have the range to drive their routes when they have to push through snow.
L2) Proterra buses are equipped with low-rolling-resistance tires which have terrible traction in the snow.
L3) Proterra buses are unable to charge when there is snow on the ground.
L4) All six Proterra buses broke down not long after the snow fell due to some design issue.
Possible reasons which have absolutely nothing to do with the capabilities of the buses themselves:
O1) Park City has a long-standing policy which dictates that they ONLY run their lowest-value buses on snowy days due to the higher rate of accidents that occur.
O2) Park City has never driven their electric buses in the snow before and they are taking this opportunity to evaluate how they do in those conditions before committing them to route service.
O3) The interiors of some buses in Park City's fleet are much easier to clean than those of others.
O4) Park City does not want to get their shiny new electric buses all dirty.
If I were in charge of scheduling the buses there, I would certainly do something like O1 to minimize losses in bad weather. This would make a lot of sense, but would not have been noticeable in the past when all buses were diesel. I know that when our LEAF was new, we never took it out in the snow.