By Chloe Trofatter
Fifteen years ago, Michigan’s first electric hybrid bus was unveiled in Traverse City.
Early editions of those buses proved unreliable. But with the return of the wave of electrification in 2021, has anything changed?
State transit authorities are cautiously optimistic, but trust in technology remains a barrier to the incorporation of electric buses into fleets, according to Jean Ruestman, the administrator of the Office of Passenger Transportation in the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).
“There is risk in implementing new technology,” Ruestman said. “There is still fear regarding how batteries will operate in the cold weather and on rough roads found in our rural areas.”
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Jobs to Move America wants the federal ban on local hiring lifted in order for projects to benefit local economies.
Walsh created a program to train workers for the I-81 project that could run up against that ban.
“What we’re trying to use Syracuse Builds for is the conduit for a pathways to apprenticeship program in partnership with local labor. But we also know there have historically been barriers in the trade particularly to communities of color,” he said.
Walsh says lifting of the ban would help some of the thousands of jobs for the I-81 project to go to local people. Deka Dancil with the Urban Jobs Task Force has been trying to find ways around the federal ban against local hiring in Syracuse. Her group did a study that showed the racial disparities of government-funded projects. It showed 87% of workers on such projects were white, while the city population is only 49% white.