Who isn't sick and tired of diesel buses that belch black smoke in your face while deafening you with their noise? They're horrible to ride in and worse to stand beside. Finally, there are new technologies coming on the market which will make the urban bus a much more civilized vehicle.

The beautiful mountain-side town of Banff, Alta. showed the way with the first 100 per cent hybrid transit fleet in North America. Mind you, Banff's fleet consists of only four buses -- but they're diesel hybrids fueled as much as possible on crop-based bio-diesel fuel.

New York City, on the other hand, has nearly 6,000 buses which carry about 2 million passengers every day, but now they're following Banff's lead. Banff bought hybrid buses which double the fuel efficiency of the typical diesel bus of the black smoke variety. Now New York has also purchased three vehicles.

New York has been trying to clean up the fleet and they already have a good number of diesel-hybrid and compressed natural gas buses. The new ones have an experimental turbine hybrid. That's even newer than Banff's fleet.

The turbine engine does away with clattering pistons, whether gasoline or diesel fueled, and instead spins quietly. You're familiar with turbine engines on airplanes and when they spin at low speeds they're almost inaudible. The turbine in the new bus generates electricity which is sent into a big lithium-ion battery under the floor. The only noise the bus makes is a gentle hum as it accelerates smoothly. When the bus stops the brakes spin more generators, which pump more juice in to the battery.

If buses could be quiet and comfortable, pleasant and non-polluting, then I believe they would no longer be the transit choice of last resort. Add a few bus-only lanes, run them on a rational schedule -- rather than three in a row then nothing for an hour -- and clean buses can be part of a quick fix to urban transit problems.

New York City Transit calls the new buses the most advanced vehicle they have. I'd buy them just to have a little silence on city streets. There are three of these turbine-hybrids in New York now (price tag US$ 559,000 each) but they may buy about ninety more.

Banff sells their hybrid bus service as the best deal in town -- forget your car and ride in buses that are friendly to the environment. Of course in Banff there's wonderful scenery to be viewed in comfort and silence as you gaze out the over-sized windows.

When modern technology catches up with the dirty old bus I think there will be a change in attitude towards them. All-electric buses will be an option in the near future as well. It all depends on battery technology -- the energy storage device. Right now you can only pack enough electricity in them for a 50 kilometer range. But batteries are improving every day and buses are improving every day.

You'll never get the scenery of Banff on your downtown route, but if your bus was friendly to the environment and friendly to you, wouldn't you like to ride it?