STM starts testing 100% electric bus

Writing about one or more aspects of electric vehicles is a popular term paper topic.  Beginning this week, the STM is testing an all-electric bus on select routes in Montreal as a possible option to help decrease its greenhouse emissions.  I was pleasantly surprised to read in the Montreal Gazette telectric bushat the STM already owns hybrid buses (part diesel and electric).  An electric bus, depending on the model, costs 7-14% more than a hybrid bus, and 50-70% more than a diesel bus.  The STM aims to purchase only electric buses when it starts replacing its existing fleet in 2025.  I look forward to riding on one!

Image from STM

A trip to an ASCE monument of the millennium

During a trip to Chicago last week, I had occasion to see one of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) monuments of the millennium, the Chicago Wastewater System.  By the end of the 19th century, Chicagoans had heavily polluted the Chicago River by dumping all of their garbage in the water, which flowed into Lake Michigan, the source of the city’s drinking supply.  This caused deadly diseases such as cholera and typhus.  To solve the problem, the flow of the Chicago River was reversed, sending it in the opposite direction from Lake Michigan.

Here’s a brief documentary on the reversal of the Chicago River: