My first ride on the Letenda Electrip Demo unit on the R4

Recorded March 24, 2025 TransLink made a survery asking passengers about the bus. Here are my responses copied and pasted, if you wanna hear my opinion. *What aspects of your experience with this electric bus stood out to you, whether positive or negative?* 1. The bus is, subjectively, perhaps the single most repulsive and unappealing transit vehicle ever conceived. That is a really, really bad-looking bus. 2. The suspension is fantastic and handled the notoriously bad paving on 41st admirably. 3. The motor is audible, which to be honest I don't mind, its not a bad sound. Subjectively, I like hearing the motor, especially on trolleys. 4. The seats are rock solid, awful. 5. The doors take far too long to open. 6. The AC was not working, too hot. *How would you describe your experience boarding and exiting the bus? Were there any challenges or aspects that worked particularly well?* The open concept interior makes boarding and alighting easy, and the rear door allows for a natural front-to-rear passenger flow. Far better than TransLink's current cutaway shuttle buses. The doors on the Letenda were super slow, taking up to 5 seconds to open fully. Plug doors are employed, which helps seal out loud noise, so that is nice to see. But the front door is also a plug, and can't be opened by hand like the rest of the fleet. Also electric doors have proven unreliable on other buses. *Do you find a difference in performance between this electric bus and a community shuttle or 40-foot bus?* Braking feels smooth and similar to a 40ft bus. And as the Letenda bus is electric, there is no mechanical transmission, and acceleration is quite smooth across the whole speed of the vehicle. Jerk rates (metres per second cubed - m/s3) also felt fairly low compared to the electric trolleybuses. I have not measured it quantitatively, so you'll have to take my word for it. Acceleration was smooth, but seemed nowhere near as powerful as the trolleybuses. The Letenda is also quite heavy at 13909kgs, comparable to a conventional bus despite the size. *Do you have any further comments or suggestions for improving your experience with this electric bus?* The design of the bus felt flawed. While I understand the "duck bill" on the front improves crash performance, buses are already remarkably safe for their occupants. As for pedestrians, the "duck bill" may help improve survivability of a collision, but I suspect this benefit would be void if a bike rack was installed. The lengthened nose and rear also wastes a lot of space, the bus interior is confined to between the two axles, with no floor space before or after the axles. This will harm capacity. anyway thanks for watching this low effort video lol :P