Poverty and pollution go hand in hand

[omro]

Isn't there going to be an off shore wind farm at some point? Wouldn't that assist in the general reduction of fossil fuel burning pollution?

As for traffic pollution, if more people use public transport, won't that lessen the effects? Especially when the trains are electrified and the LRT starts up. Ok they are drops in the ocean, but they're drops none-the-less.

How polluting are the current buses?

[crhayes]

Originally Posted by omro

Isn't there going to be an off shore wind farm at some point? Wouldn't that assist in the general reduction of fossil fuel burning pollution?

As for traffic pollution, if more people use public transport, won't that lessen the effects? Especially when the trains are electrified and the LRT starts up. Ok they are drops in the ocean, but they're drops none-the-less.

How polluting are the current buses?

Most of the buses, if not all of them, run on natural gas which is the cleanest burning fossil fuel.

When you factor in the number of passengers a bus takes it is a lot cleaner mode of transportation.

There's a table here that outlines the emissions for burning of various fossil fuels.

[matt602]

Not quite true. About 5 years ago most of the fleet was CNG but the last 3 year's bus orders have all been diesel or diesel-hybrid. The total count on CNG buses is roughly 95 (not counting retirements since delivery) vs. 116 diesel buses (once again not counting retirements since delivery). There were originally more CNG buses but many of them were retired in the last 5 years or so. More will retire in the next 10 years, as the ones purchased in 1996 start having trouble (even today I saw one broken down at Eastgate).

A lot of agencies abandoned CNG technology because it wasn't really a price-competitive alternative to diesel any more, and it required additional re-fueling facilities. Cleaner for the environment, but certainly not economical any more.

[crhayes]

I stand corrected!

[MsMe]

I still remember the old trolley buses. I used to watch the wires when a bus was passing by so I could watch the sparks from the trolleys.

[matt602]

Kinda funny you mention that. I was walking home the other day and noticed that the curve that Reid Av. makes when it turns into Roxborough is incredibly wide. Then I realized it must have been for the trolley buses. Some relics still remain...

[IronWarrior]

Originally Posted by MsMe

I still remember the old trolley buses. I used to watch the wires when a bus was passing by so I could watch the sparks from the trolleys.

I remember the trolley buses! I remember watching the sparks fly as well..it was quite fascinating to me back then as a little kid watching those buses..

[omro]

Shame they didn't keep all the electric powered buses. San Francisco has all the over head wires for their electric buses and no one ever accuses that city of being uglier for having them...

[MsMe]

I remember as well when the fare for a bus ride was according to height. I can't remember when they changed it according to age.

[ryan_mcgreal]

• Poor and Dirty (with apologies to both Chamillionaire and Weird Al Yankovic)

[MsMe]

What max yearly income are they saying is poverty now?

[ryan_mcgreal]

If you mean the StatsCan low income cut-off (LICO) measure, it's calculated based on the percentage of a family's total income that it needs to spend on food and shelter compared to the average family. It also varies on family size and on city population.

For a city of over 500,000 like Hamilton, the numbers in 2007 were:

1 person - $21,666
2 persons - $26,972
3 persons - $33,159
4 persons - $40,259
5 persons - $45,662
6 persons - $51,498
7 or more - $57,336

Note: Strictly speaking, LICO is not a measure of poverty per se but rather of "straitened circumstances", but it is a useful proxy for poverty.