A Green Industry From 1900 Roars Back To Life
One hundred and ten years ago, well before many Americans had even seen a car, there was a cab company prowling the streets of New York City.
As The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal relates in Powering the Dream (a must-read for any fan of green tech and history), the cabs’ batteries only held enough charge for about 150 miles. But in a compact area like Manhattan, there was a solution.
[The business’ owners] asked George Herbert Condict to design a new way to swap batteries in and out of cabs quickly. Condict responded with an ingenious system that drew on his experience supervising a Manhattan streetcar line that used swappable batteries for power. The ESB constructed it in a converted skating rink at 1684 Broadway to service the rapidly growing fleet.
When a cab drove into the station, technicians secured and centered it with hydraulic shoes. They then hitched the 1,300-pound battery tray, which ran underneath the cab, to a hydraulic piston that pulled out the whole thing and sat it on a table, where “an overhead crane plucked it from the table and deposited it in the charging room.” They slotted in a new battery and off the cab went again into the wild Manhattan streets.
Ultimately, though, a combination of mismanagement and technical glitches killed off the Electrical Vehicle Company. As Madrigal notes, automotive historian John B. McRae calls the company the “Monopoly that Missed.”
But 110 years later, green cabs are once again the rage. Discount Cab, in Glendale, Arizona, and the city of Chicago have put an emphasis on greening their fleets.
In Discount’s case, the company owns 350 Toyota Priuses. The company’s CEO indicates that they’ve been “blown away” by the vehicles and - more importantly - the positive response they’ve seen. The result?
The move helps the environment to the tune of 14,000 less tons of carbon dioxide released into the air each year, and also saves Discount Cab the cost of 1.4 million gallons of fuel. Hughes said customers often request a Prius, and he thinks the hybrid fleet helps account for the company’s growth in financially troubled times.
Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Mayor Daley marked Earth Day by announcing a new program that will provide incentives for cab drivers and cab companies to buy cleaner fuels - including up to $14,000 for converting from gasoline to cleaner burning fuels.
(Chicago’s program doesn’t cover all-electric vehicles, though - presumably because of infrastructural limitations. Is George Herbert Condict looking for work?)
The hybrid vehicles used in both of these examples (and in cities like London, Arlington, Virginia, and Northampton, Massachussets) are far more mature than the original Electrobat pictured at the top of this post. And - as importantly - so are the business models of the companies.
What 110 years ago was an experimental rush to build a business has become a natural transition path. And a greener one - it creates jobs and improves the health of our climate.
Which of course raises the primary question that has undoubtedly entered your mind as you’ve read this.
What if?
