BRT is growing in Latin America

Curitiba is the home town of Volvo Buses in Brazil. The city was in practical terms inventing the concept of Buss Rapid Transit (BRT) in 1972 when Jaime Lerner, was the architect for and initiated the first trunk lines

Read more about the system in Curitiba here.

I have previously written about the superior environmental performance of BRT systems. In fact a BRT system with occupancy beyond 40% outperforms every other type of person transport.

Volvo is hence particularly proud to now be a partner for the renewal and extension of the Curitiba BRT system. Volvo Buses got the order for 383 buses, including 12 meter buses, articulated buses and bi-articulated buses.

Read the press release about the order here.

Social media

When going with the bus to the airport recently I sat next to a gentleman who was on his way to visit his family in London. We came to talk about the cold weather and winter sports, skiing and skating. The skating has been good in the Gothenburg area this year. My new bus-friend, who did not skate before, enjoyed the skating tremendously.

Behind us sat a young English speaking couple from India. I heard that they were on their way back to Bangalore. By chance Volvo Buses and Volvo Trucks have factories in the vicinity of Bangalore. On the way out from the bus I asked if they had connection to Volvo. But, no, with more than 5 million inhabitants the chances are of course low. But they knew about the Volvo Bus factory and showed thumbs up.

I’m not the most frequent user of facebook but every now and then I send some greetings to more or less remote friend. You never know how many friends you are away from an unexpected reunion. When Volvo Buses started on facebook facebook.com/Volvobus I asked my self who would I meet? It turned out to be like going with the bus. Sometimes you find an old friend sometimes you connect to a new.

Crude oil price rise again

When the oil price peaked in the summer 2008 the economy was growing all over the world and the “wheels” in the industry rotated faster than ever. When the economical crisis hit the western world the oil price dropped from 140 $ / barrel to below 60 $ / barrel within a few months. Since then we have had one major accident from deep sea oil drilling..

I frequently follow the oil price and you can also do it on this link

The last half year the price has been climbing steadily from 75 to 100 $ per barrel. According to Petrobras CEO Mr. Gabrielli the global production capacity peaked in 2010.

There have been limited investments and the production capacity and there is a long lead time for building oil production capacity. It is hence reasonable to believe that the oil production the next five years will remain lower than the recent peak years, simply for the limited production capacity.

Over a long period of time the price for different energy “sources” such as oil, coal, gas and electricity from any source is coupled. When the oil price is high oil heated electric power plants are converted to coal and gas.

With the increasing oil price the interest increase for transports with low fuel consumption. We are hence very glad to be able to offer efficient hybrid buses both by Nova bus in North America and by Volvo in Europe. In a way a hybrid bus is an insurance for higher fuel prices.

Environmental Quiz

Last week we had a small gathering among friends. I prepared a quiz that I would like to recycle, to the benefit of the environment:

1, In which country does the population use most energy per capita. (2007)

2, How much energy was used per person in the US year 2007 (in equivalents of tonne oil)?

3, How much energy was used per person in India year 2007 (in equivalents of tonne oil)?

4, About how much colder would the earth be in average if it was not for the green house effect caused by water vapour and carbon dioxide?

5, How much has the Sulphur emission per person decreased in Sweden since 1961 when I was born? In 1961 it was 49 kg per capita and year.

6, Today 86% of the people in Brazil live in cities. How many percent of the population in China lives in cities?

7, Germany have 576 vehicles (cars, trucks and buses) per 1000 inhabitants. Indian mega industry enterprise offers the Tata Nano for about US$ 2900 (December 2010). How many vehicles are there in India today per 1000 persons?

8, In year 2000 Mazda 626 was the mid size car with the lowest fuel consumption on the Canadian market. The fuel consumption was 9.3 litre /100 km in city. In 2011 Toyota Prius has the lowest number. Which is the fuel consumption in city driving?

9, Mauna Loa on Hawaii, is one of the most well known observatories for carbon dioxide. In 1959 when the measurements started the atmospheric level of CO2 was 315 ppm. What is it today?

10, In the old times there were CO2 levels of more than 400 ppm. How long ago?

11, How many percent of the residential energy is used for lighting in the US?

12, In 1992 the Euro I legislation limited the NOx emissions from trucks to 8 g/kWh. What is the limit today (Euro V)?

13, Shortage of water is an urgent subject in many parts of the world. How many percent of the worlds population suffer from shortage of water according to the UN?

Answers

1, Qatar (followed by Iceland and United Arab Emirates)

2, 7.8 tonne oil equivalents per person and year

3, 0.53 tonne oil equivalents per person and year

4, About 30 °C.

5, It has decreased from 49 kg to 3.1 kg per year. I.e. the fireworks on new year ads in detectable amounts to the number, now a days!

6, 43% of the people in China live in cities.

7, 12 vehicles per 1000 persons makes an attractive sales potential! Considering the price it is quite a decent car actually, I tried it in 2009.

8, In Canada, Toyota Prius use 3.7 litre /100 km in city. (Ford Fusion is on second with 4.6 litre / 100 km).

9, Today the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is about 390 ppm. In the pre industrial eras it was 275 ppm. Observatory Records: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/mlo.html#mlo_full

10, Geological studies shows that the CO2 in the atmosphere was higher than today some 30-40 million years ago. 

11, According to US statistics 13% of the energy use is used for lighting (and 46% for heating/cooling of the house)

12, The NOx limit introduced in 2008 is 2 g/kWh and from 31st of December 2013 it will be 0.4 g/kWh.

13, 40% of the world’s population can not access the amount of fresh water they would need for drinking and sanitary purposes.