Buses seem to spit out a large dark cloud. How can using transit possibly help our air quality?
While the black cloud coming from a bus may seem dirty, the low-sulfur diesel used in the RTC bus fleet is much less harmful than the byproducts released by gasoline engines. With only seven passengers on a bus, it is producing less harmful pollutants than if each person drove their own vehicle. In addition, the RTC is in the process of rolling out an entire new fleet of buses and many of those will be cleaner running, hybrid diesel/electric vehicles. The RTC has also recently acquired several buses which operate on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). These buses produce nearly 90% less emissions than those operating on diesel fuel and while these buses operate like any other, you will recognize them by the tanks which are on each bus top.
