Slashdot Mirror
NYPD To Replace Motor Fleet With Electric Scooters
XueCast writes "A few days ago, the New York Police Department, one of the largest police forces in the US, announced that they are planning to make New York greener by replacing their gasoline motorcycle fleet with the super-quiet and energy efficient electric scooters from Vectrix.
NYPD said that they will first road test four electric scooters from the Rhode Island-based electric vehicle manufacturer next month, and if the road test is a success, NYPD said that they plan to order more electric scooters from Vectrix to replace their less-than-green motorcycle fleet."
Well the blog and the headline are all screwy...this is a trial, and they are not thinking about replacing their motorcycle fleet, but their gas scooter fleet. They have a ton of those things. original source (new window)
this sig deleted by another sig
They should at least fix the damn spelling errors. "quite" is supposed to be "quiet".
Launchy.net changed my world.
It's generally not considered a huge deal since the ratio of motorcycles to cars on the road is rather low, but if a fleet of bikes can be replaced, it might make a difference.
Maybe they should use pedal bikes. Quite a few UK police forces tried equipping their police officers with bicycles which seemed quite effective. No-one could get away from them on foot but it didn't stop them from going through pedestrian areas. And they were certainly more approachable than police officers in cars or on motorbikes.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
New bikes DO have catalytic converters.
Check the "ENGINE" tab here. for example:
http://www.ducati.com/od/ducatinorthamerica/en/bikes/model.jhtml?model=2390
Motorcycle police aren't there for high speed chases. It is too dangerous to the officer to do any kind of chase due to the instant death any wreck would bring.
Getting around in New York is slow and takes a lot of corners so the specs on the bike seem to be on target to the top speed they would get on a regular motorcycle in that huge city. I think their testing will prove that the bikes will be just fine for the job.
Most beat officers don't take suspects to jail. They call a car from the district who picks up the suspect for processing. It gives another witness to the event and taking a beat officer off the road leaves a large gap in the police presence.
You can always tell when there is real trouble by the number of cars. 1 police vehicle is normally a citation; 2+ vehicles is generally an arrest of one sort or another.
Err no , why would I be?
"how about comparing it with a car of similar performance?"
An average bike does 0-60 in about 5 seconds. My camaro could do that and still hit 30mpg on a good day and it weighed 1600kg. How can a 160kg bike of the same performance only get less than twice the mpg? Sorry , something doesn't add up.
A vehicle such as a bike that is that light with a cross sectional area that small should have far far better mpg than perhaps 50% more than a car weighing 10 times more and 4 or 5 times the frontal area (and hence air resistance). The fact that bikes don't says a lot about their inefficient (and torque-free) engines.
Have you been on a modern motorcycle? In any case, I disagree with your assessment -- it sounds like you're ignoring real math here. Where do you get your average 0-60 figures? I'd estimate that most 500-1000cc bikes get to 60 in closer to 3.5-4 seconds. My 25-year-old 500cc Honda cruiser can scoot to 60 in less than 5 seconds. Even modern power cruisers (yes, more than 1000 cc) tend to get up to the sixty-mark in under 5 seconds (according to this article, HD V Rod hits 60 in 4.26 seconds, Honda VTX does it in 4.45, Suzuki Boulevard M109 does 60 in 3.89 -- I could go on) -- and these bikes are significantly heavier than 160 kg.
Regarding your perceived inefficiency of motorcycle engines, I have to disagree again...even on your torque jab. Let's look at the lowly Suzuki SV650, a commuter bike with an older 650cc v-twin motor (disclaimer: I ride one of these). According to Wikipedia, its 650cc motor outputs 47.2 lb-ft of torque. An econobox like the Suzuki Swift (again, according to wikipedia) has a 1300 cc motor and outputs 83 lb-ft of torque. SV650 outputs .073 Lb-ft per cc while econobox outputs .064 Lb-ft per cc. The torque figures on your LS1 motor don't fare any better against a motorcycle engine. Citing wikipedia (yet again) the 5.7L Camaro LS1 made 365 Lb-ft of torque in its final form - not too shabby. Similar to the Suzuki Swift, it makes .064 Lb-ft per cc. Motorcycles don't look so torque-free now, right? In a bhp/liter comparison, there is absolutely no comparison (mainly due to their ability to rev) - motorcycles even beat up on modern forced-induction bhp/liter numbers.
At speed, motorcycles lose some of their efficiency due to wind resistance caused by the exposed rider and mechanical parts. Surface area doesn't matter as much in that case. I'd wager if we looked at fuel economy per weight or economy per passenger (in a car with 4-passengers) most cars on the road would win. However, when comparing a single rider to a single occupant in a car, motorcycles win the MPG equation hands-down.
Don't get me wrong, I still love cars. In terms of performance, they tend to be able to out-corner and out-brake motorcycles. However, I'm under no illusion that most cars have an edge in acceleration or fuel economy over motorcycles. It just isn't so.
-Turkey
compared to a Goldwing that's a deal