Bowdoin students who have opted for eco-friendly bikes instead of cars when traveling through Brunswick may be in for a pleasant surprise.
By September 2008, Brunswick plans to have three hybrid buses that will provide transportation along local circuits as part of the new "Wheels" program.
Wheels was developed by the Midcoast Collaborative for Access to Transportation (MCAT), a group that works to meet the transportation needs of Brunswick and Topsham residents.
The group "identified a real need for regular van or bus service in the Brunswick community and focused on the feasibility of providing a transportation system," said Director of Finance and Campus Services Del Wilson, Bowdoin's MCAT representative since 2004.
After contracting consultants Ashton Associates and Tom Crikelair Associates and considering their research and recommendations, the Collaborative came up with its three routes and began raising funds for the project.
According to Wilson, MCAT received a grant of $40,000 from the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), along with $5,000 from both Bowdoin College and the Town of Brunswick, with Bowdoin students and faculty supporting Bowdoin's promise of an additional $10,000 per year for the next three years.
Coastal Trans will operate the buses, given that the Federal Transportation Authority provides the additional $45,000 necessary to afford the three hybrid buses.
The three bus routes are expected to open in September 2008 and will serve the disabled, hospitals, social service agencies, shopping centers, local employers, and any Bowdoin students or Brunswick citizens that need a lift.
The hybrid buses set a high standard of environmental efficiency, according to a recent article published in the Times Record. Hybrid buses provide a 40 percent emission reduction, the article said, and will also reduce fuel consumption by 40 percent.
The buses will feature 18 seats and use a braking system that will transfer energy normally lost during breaking back to the nickel batteries the buses operate on.
The battery functions as long as the bus is going less than five miles per hour, so fewer emissions will be released at stoplights or in slower traffic and fuel costs will decrease.
Director of Student Life and the David Saul Smith Union Allen DeLong has been active in Bowdoin's involvement with Wheels, and said that he thinks MCAT has given the Brunswick and Bowdoin communities a great opportunity to become involved in a program with significant environmental implications.
"Although this is a very local service, the lower environmental impact has global ramifications. I think the planners had the bumper sticker, 'think globally, act locally' in mind when they chose the hybrid buses," DeLong said.
In addition to its environmental benefits, he said, the bus system will be a great way to link the Bowdoin community and the Brunswick community, as students utilizing the Wheels program will be using the buses along with other members of the Brunswick-Topsham community.
"Part of participating in a community is having shared experiences with other community members," said DeLong, "and this service will provide a new and different way for Bowdoin folks to get to know Brunswick folks and visa-versa."