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Retrofit of a city bus with The Wheel technology for NEMS. Continue...
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Construction of a fuel-cell powered city bus.
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5 Hybrid citybuses for Apeldoorn community. Continue...
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First Whisper city bus assimilated in Apeldoorn's bus schedule
Apeldoorn, the Stentor by Jarno Beumink Tuesday January 19th 2010.
Tram bell in whisperbus sounds “Pretty Funny”
The first Whisper bus at its busstop. Source: Cees Baars
The surprised look on the face of a padestrian speaks for itself. When the whisperbus takes the crossing Kanaalstraat, Hofstraat, Hoofdstraat – at McDonalds, the tram bell sounds to warn pedestrians, cyclists and other road users. A tram bell on a bus? The Whisper also known as the whisperbus, has one.
The bus is much more energy efficient as a normal bus but above all much more silent. To prevent accidents with innocent other road users the tram bell sounds on set times.
Since this month does the bus (invented in Apeldoorn) also takes passengers. This afternoon it is quite in the bus both passanger and sound wise. No motorsounds when the bus accelerates. The only thing you hear is the buzzing of a generator and the creeking of the handles where you can hold yourself onto. Hans van der Ven of the Whisper foundation calls this the derivative effect; because of the quiteness of the bus other sounds stand out more.
“It sounds pretty funny” comments student Arinda Baltzer on the tram bell. ‘This is the second time that I am in the Whisper, but that bell does get noticed”.
Balzer states that for the rest it is not much more different as a “normal” bus. The most important is that the bus brings you from a to b. The Whisper has been extensively tested to make it reliable as much as possible. The first Whisper drives since last summer in Apeldoorn. Van der Ven tells that during the test period various small practical problems were discovered. For example did the heather need to be adjusted. “Because the bus uses less energy, you have less heat loss and less spare heat to heat the bus. But of course you can’t let people sit in a cold bus. That’s why the heater needed to be adjusted.”
The bus driver of this route drives for the first time in the Whisper as line 11 on the route Malkenschoten/Stadhoudersmolen. He notices that the bus starts difficult, but there is no difference with a normal bus soon as the bus is at speed. According to Els Damen, branchmanager of Veolia Apeldoorn, was the acceleration from the start of the testperiod a point of attention. Meanwhile this has improved immensely. She states that “Busdrivers react very positive, although not all drivers has driven it yet”.
Since the Whisper also transports passengers the bus drives “perfect” according to Damen. “Drivers hear from passengers that they enjoy that this bus doesn’t make much sound.”
Passenger Jacobs affirms this. “I hope that there will be more of these type of buses”. Van der Ven thinks however that a lot of people don’t even realise in what kind of bus the are sitting. “It is world’s most energy efficient bus, but I don’t think that passengers notice this.”
However he is convinced that during this year more interested parties will come flocking in to (wheter or not on an outing) have a ride in the whisperbus. In the meanwhile a second whisperbus is prepared. Later this year another two will be included in the bus time table of Apeldoorn.