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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."
Motor fleet = Car fleet Motorcycle?
I'm so scared!
Yes it's sarcasm.
They look so metrothexual.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Stop linking to blogs whose sole purpose is copy+pasting content from other sites and link to the source
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Why spend $11,000 on new motorcycles when that sort of investment in more efficient police cars would have a much greater environmental impact? (Not to mention savings at the pump) Traditional motorcycles don't use that much gas, and can easily get 2-3 times the mpg of a car. Halving the energy consumption of a motorcycle is nowhere near as interesting as halving the energy consumption of a car.
Its New York. You're not going anywhere.
If I were a motorcycle cop, I would not want to be involved in any high-speed chases. You want to be safe within a cage for that type of work.
On the other hand, it seems silly to replace motorcycles (already quite fuel-efficient due to their light weight) while leaving gas-guzzling cars and SUVs in the fleet. Why not replace all patrol cars with hybrids? They can run on battery around town, and switch over to ICE for the high-speed chases (obviously you'd want something beefier than a Prius).
What do motorcycle cops do that those in cars can't? Is it simply their ability to go down narrower spaces, or are the motorcycles useful for more than that? Is it simply space saving over cars?
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
"Stop linking to blogs whose sole purpose is copy+pasting content from other sites and link to the source [cnn.com]"
Yeah! Stop linking to slashdot. Oh wait!
Public safety should never be something that gets compromised by poorly thought-out "green" initiatives.
"NYPD To Replace Motor Fleet With Electric Scooters" should read, "NYPD to Test Electric Scooters."
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.
Yeah, they're big motorcycles. They only get 45 mpg in the city, and that's observed fuel economy, not some Science-Fiction EPA rating.
So, let's replace the most fuel efficient motor vehicle the NYPD has in the fleet because it's "less than green" and let's keep those cars, trucks, vans, helicopters, and who-knows-what else. You know, for the children.
4 wheels, small size and running on electricity - Electric wheelchair !
"What do motorcycle cops do that those in cars can't?"
Freeze to death in the middle of winter. Fly gracefully over the hood of a car in an accident. Be able to fart without one's partner commenting on it. Pop wheelies.
With a maxium speed of 60 and a range of 68 miles at 25 mph what's the point? Either they are for chasing pedestrians or motorcycle escorts. The speed is only adequate for city streets for short trips. I'm assuming they are intended for traffic and parking tickets and are more a replacement for for the old Cushman type vehicles. They are hardly a replacement for motorcycles. They could servie some of the purposes that mounted officers did but they lack the high visibility that was a benificial feature of being on horseback. I really wish the article had gone into the intended use because it is a puzzle.
Given the population density of New York isnt it time to setup city wide (or at least the financial district wide) people mover belts like you find at the nicer International Airports (Dubai and Frankfurt spring to mind). These would be hyper efficient as only the thing which needs to be moved i.e. a person weighing 200 pounds instead of moving a big iron box weighing tons aka a car.
These used to be a staple of futuristic SF stories - wonder why it never caught on - the technology is definitely there(in airports)
On a side note if people are using conveyor belts the cops dont need motorcycles to catch perps - just get on the hyperfast conveyor belt lane reserved for emergencies.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Helicopters are insanely expensive to purchase and operate. On second thought, put one into service with a rack of Hellfire missiles and we could apply a little negative reinforcement to the idiots that endanger everyone by running from the police.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
The electric scooters are replacing non-electric scooters. They are not replacing non-electric motorcycles.
There are police on foot, police on segways, police on bicycles, police on horseback, police on motor-cycles, police in patrol cars, police in interceptor cars, police in trucks, and, yes, police on scooters.
What I think is stupid, is being assumptive of the role involved and the needs without doing so much as actually even reading the article first.
Personlly, in my experience with law-enforcement, there is too often the purchase of too much vehicle... usually with the "that's what we normally get". There's really no need for a V8 in a Manhattan patrol car (or taxi, which are also generally Crown Vics with V8s that spend most of their time at a near-stand-still), no one goes that fast there. If you are highway patrol out here in FL, then you do need a large engine because 120mpg chases can happen.
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.
Recharging batteries requires electricity, which in the US, is derived primarily from burning coal, which is worse ecologically than burning gasoline.
I bet you can't back that up with any facts. A modern coal burning power plant is probably 50% efficient or better and cleans its exhaust. A gas engine in a vehicle is about 20% efficient (ignoring the transportation costs of getting the fuel to the vehicle) and does very little cleaning of the exhaust.
The only reason coal is considered such an ecological threat is that we use so much of it. If we tried to produce the same amount of energy using gasoline (assuming we could build the refineries to make it all), that would be a true ecological disaster.
*sigh* back to work...
PPL are losing respect for the police, not for law and order. They would very much like to see it. The problem is that we have too many corrupt police, combined with police brutality. Even in the gangs, they know that they can buy more and more cops. And half of those that they can not buy, will beat them if given a chance.
As to the gun, the vast majority do not respect it. They fear it. That is two very different concepts. It is also part of the reason why more and more criminals are getting bigger guns.
Want ppl to respect the police? Then the police need to enforce the laws on themselves.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Disclaimer: IAAEVE (I am an eletric vehicle engineer). It sounds like you've never even driven an EV.
You've exposed the most fraudulent part of the greenies' movement. Recharging batteries requires electricity, which in the US, is derived primarily from burning coal, which is worse ecologically than burning gasoline.
Burning coal to power EVs is a pretty stupid solution, and I don't think anyone is actually advocating that, but it is absolutely an improvement over burning gasoline. Your assertion is well documented as totally false, yet it's constantly repeated. You really should do your own research on this, but here's a whitepaper from Tesla Motors for starters. It's a pretty fair analysis of the relative efficiencies of various propulsion systems. It does cheat a little by assuming natural gas generation for electricity, but it's obvious from the numbers that--even from coal--EVs are a significant win in terms of reducing pollution and CO2 emissions.
You can substitute just about any EV for Tesla's Roadster -- they're all exceptionally efficient, at under 300 AC watthours per mile. Yes, I'm an electric vehicle engineer.
As long as the Greenies keep pushing fake green agendas on us like electric cars but at the SAME TIME keep protesting nuclear power, this will never be a good solution.
Nuclear power is a fantastic option. Between nuclear, wind, and hydro, more than half of California's energy is pollution- and CO2-free. Electricity is the ultimate flex fuel -- you can generate it from coal, nuclear, or solar panels on your roof.
You spewed some further misinformation further down -- I'll reply to that later on.