IT set to buy six hybrid buses

$2.3 million from stimulus package pays for part of purchase

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published April 05, 2009

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Intercity Transit will purchase its first six hybrid transit buses, thanks in large part to the federal economic stimulus package.

Smoking near transit centers banned

Starting May 1, people no longer will be allowed to smoke outdoors at the transit centers in Lacey and Olympia.

Intercity Transit's governing board toughened the agency's no-smoking policy with a unanimous vote Wednesday.

In November 2001, the board adopted a policy that banned smoking at transit-owned facilities except in designated smoking areas on the grass on the perimeter of the property. Staff members enforce the policy and order violators to move.

Four years later, voters approved an initiative to ban smoking in public places and workplaces, including within a 25-foot radius of buildings and bus shelters. As a result, Intercity Transit banned smoking within a 25-foot radius of bus shelters at its transit centers and at bus stops.

The new policy bans smoking up to the sidewalk at the Lacey and Olympia transit centers and out to the curb at bus shelters and boarding areas around the Olympia Transit Center.

Intercity Transit said it has received complaints about secondhand smoke and litter from cigarette butts from residents.

The Olympian

Four of the buses will be purchased with $2.3 million granted through the $787 billion economic-stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed into law in February. Intercity Transit will purchase the other two buses with other federal funds and $575,000 in local money.

The buses are scheduled to arrive in mid-2010 and will replace six of the oldest buses, which have been in operation since 1996.

The agency's governing board approved the purchases of the diesel-�electric buses Wednesday.

"We are pleased to be able to use these funds to make Olympia's transit system even greener," general manager Mike Harbour said in a news release.

Seven years ago, Intercity Transit became the first transit system in the Northwest to fuel its entire bus fleet with cleaner-burning biodiesel.

Biodiesel will be used in the new buses.

Hybrid buses get more than 6 miles per gallon, compared with 5 miles per gallon for conventional buses.

That might not seem like a lot, but the increased mileage translates into an estimated savings of 37,500 gallons over the operating life of the bus, or an estimated $138,000 at today's fuel prices, agency spokeswoman Meg Kester wrote in an e-mail. A transit bus travels 750,000 miles or more over its lifetime.

The buses also emit less air population and diesel odor and ride smoother and quieter, Intercity Transit officials said.

A hybrid bus is estimated to cost $560,000; it costs $400,000 for a conventional one, Kester said.

Christian Hill is a reporter for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5427 or chill@theolympian.com.