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Oakland County Companies Working to Design a Better BusSleeker, lighter and more fuel-efficient buses developed in Troy may one day make their debut on the streets of Metro Detroit.
Automation Alley's Technology Center and Altair Engineering, both in Troy, have secured a $550,000 federal grant that the duo hopes will jumpstart a revolution in the design of mass-transit buses. Altair engineers argue a better design could save money, reduce redundancies and make buses more passenger-friendly .
Altair and Automation Alley plan to build two prototype buses by 2006. One will be operated and evaluated by SMART, and the other will go to the Detroit Department of Transportation.
"Innovations for buses happen very slowly. We decided to start from scratch and do it right," said Jos Timmermans, a German-born Altair technical director who pitched the bus redesign idea. "Performance-wis e, this bus should be a big leap, even in Europe, where bus technology is at its peak."
Altair since 1999 has worked on a new bus that resembles typical city buses and has many of the same components used today by Detroit's city bus system and by the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, or SMART, the area's suburban bus line.
Bus rider Rose McInerney said she's eager to see an upgrade in the area's buses. McInerney, 52, said she regularly takes the bus to shopping destinations li
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