Dallas is the first US city to join Guangzhou, China, and a few other metro areas around the world that have launched a wireless electric streetcar.
The trollies raise mechanical arms to draw power from overhead wires at passenger stations, charging on-board batteries; the cars then can travel up to five miles per charge on dedicated tracks.
The streetcars are good at shuttling large numbers of passengers from hub to hub in different parts of a city at as little as one-seventh the cost of a subway crossing the same route. Buses – increasingly electric in their power systems – can still be used to make block-by-block stops.
TRENDPOST: New transportation technologies and systems, from electric streetcars to Uber and Lyft, are offering urbanites more convenience and more reasons to forsake vehicle ownership.