Electric Buses in Operation
Helsinki’s ambition to invest in public and multi-modal transport as well as sustainable and electrical mobility is strong and citizen activities and involvement in these topics are very high. Large-scale up-take of electric buses in Helsinki region will commence with the first 12 fully electric buses deployed to commercial operation in the pilot phase (2017-2018) and continue operation in a living lab environment. Detailed measurements of a pre-commercial pilot are extended to operational analysis of the growing fleet. 10 % of the fleet will be fully electric in commercial operation by the end of mySMARTLife. The impact to the residential areas will be monitored with noise and air quality sensors.
Integration of the charging infrastructure for the maintenance and logistics fleet in synergy with the electric bus fleet is planned to support the charging and operation of the hybrid-electric machinery fleet. The monitoring of the maintenance and logistics fleet is implemented to collect data for operational as well as impact analysis. The analysis of the performance and operation of the maintenance and logistic fleet, including its shares of fully electric, hybrid and conventional machine operation, is ongoing as well.
The automated electric minibus, with passenger capacity of up to eight seats, produces no emissions and no noise. The "robobus" operates on low speed (approximately 20km/h) and on open public streets amongst other vehicles. The robobus has been given a line number on its current route in Helsinki providing an urban mobility use case that substantially contributes to life quality and modal shift away from private cars. It complements the network of Helsinki’s metropolitan public transit authority Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) and has been incorporated to the mobility journey planner (Reittiopas). The automated bus operates on its predetermined specific route as a long running trial with the possibility of having a route in different location later during mySMARTLife. Weather conditions set restrictions to all-year-round operation and an operator is always on board monitoring the operation of the bus.
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