The Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) introduced battery-electric buses into regular service in January of 1991. This novel application of electric propulsion ensured quiet, exhaust-free, odorless operation, and proved to be an immediate success with riders, as evidenced by a five-fold increase in ridership during the first year of all-electric operation. During the past eleven years of operation, the MTD has logged 1.2 million miles and over 260,000 hours of service on its battery-electric fleet, and has carried ten million passengers during the course of more than 30,000 eight-hour driving cycles. The Santa Barbara Electric Transportation Institute (SBETI) has provided technical assistance to the MTD during this period.

The MTD's battery-electric fleet of twenty-three buses is the largest and most diverse in the world. The SBETI has evaluated many different electric propulsion systems and related componentry, including high-power chargers that promise to enable electric buses to perform duty cycles presently achievable only with conventionally fueled buses.

The operation of electric buses in regular transit service (as opposed to short-term experimental demonstrations) has produced a wealth of useful data. Information presented will include driver energy management, vehicle performance and applicability, battery comparisons, charger performance, maintenance and operational costs, and air quality benefits.

Paul Griffith serves as President of the Santa Barbara Electric Transportation Institute and has spent twenty-one years in engineering research and development activities with the Santa Barbara MTD, Patec Corporation, Oerlikon-Contraves of Switzerland, and General Dynamics Corporation. Mr. Griffith received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and is past chair of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Working Council. He has authored and presented numerous technical papers at major industry conferences and holds five U.S. and foreign patents for aerospace products currently under manufacture in Europe.

From the Co-Presidents: We welcome new members Dako Corporation, Mission Research Corporation, Julian Nott and Darrel Conway and the renewal of Toyon Research's membership. The active support of our members lets SEC continue its support and discussion of scientific and engineering developments on the Central Coast. Our schedule of up-coming programs is listed on our web site www.scieng.org. We are always interested in suggestions from our members of topics of interest. We look forward to seeing you at one or more of the upcoming meetings.