Posted on: Monday, July 9, 2001

Bus design nets Hawai'i team top honors

By Scott Ishikawa
Transportation Writer

A team of Hawai'i planners, engineers, artists and designers beat out international competition to win a top award for the design of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric bus.

The Hawai'i entry, called the CitySurfer, features a 70-foot, low-floor vehicle powered by electric motors and hydrogen fuel cells.

The bus would generate no polluting emissions and includes amenities such as 60-inch wide sliding doors, ergonomic seating and worktables.

The competition drew entries from the United States, Japan, Sweden, France and Mexico, and was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration and other public and private transportation organizations. The winning designs were honored at a June 18 awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The Hawai'i team won the professional category of the competition and received a $10,000 cash prize as well as honors for "excellence in the use of established bus rapid transit concepts."

"Because this was an international juried competition, I was really surprised to find out that we had won," said Karl Kim, a University of Hawai'i Department of Urban and Regional Planning professor who headed the Hawai'i team.

Kim said the Hawai'i team put together a strong presentation.

Several vehicle manufacturers already use fuel-cell buses, Kim noted. Ballard, for example, has a big demonstration project using the technology in Vancouver.

"Many of the manufacturers including DaimlerChrysler and Toyota have announced development of fuel cell SUVs," Kim said. "It is definitely the wave of the future — renewable fuel source, zero emissions, and it eliminates many of the problems with an internal combustion engine."

"Our bus design is meant to radically change the experience of urban commuting," he added. "The only way people will give up their cars is if they can see real benefits to riding a bus. In addition to a quiet, clean, safe environment, our bus also offers the advantage of being able to work or surf the Internet while on board."

The Hawai'i team included James Burke, Ryan Tam and Jon Noguchi, who have expertise in transportation planning; Herb Hendrickson and Jimmy Yamamoto, who have engineering backgrounds; and Devin Oishi, Kiyomi Oyama, Carrie Kotoshirodo and Emil Nasritdinov, who are artists and designers.

Details about the competition can be found on the Federal Transit Administration Web site at www.fta.dot.gov.

Scott Ishikawa can be reached at sishikawa@honoluluadvertisercom or 525-8070.