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Its NOT the equivalent of one person raming into a bus and having an effect on its speed; Its the equivalent of, say, 25-50 people raming into the bus and having an effect on its speed.
A single person isnt expected to pay of the energy consumption of the bus with this scheme, its merely they are expected to pay-of the extra electricity used by -them- riding the bus. Its like buying carbon-displacement when traveling by air, your not covering the whole aircraft, just (supposedly) your contribution by being on that flight.
We are also, of course, talking about an electric bus here, using an electric moter which is vastely more efficient in terms of energy conversion then a combustion engine. (and, of course, human muscles powered by food are also hugely efficient....and, ultimately, solar-powered, energy source. ).
Dont get me wrong, its still not going to cover infrastructure costs, and those capacitors will lose a lot of energy too.
Not to mention storing it before reaching the bus.
If your going to generate power from people, just feeding it back into the grid directly would be the better way to do it. At least then it would power some energy-efficient light bulbs easily enough.
And, actually, yes, daft as it sounds, using people in Gyms to generate power is sensible too....exercise machines are supposed to provide resistance, and dont have to move, and dont need to carry the weight of the capaciters so should be able to generate a lot more energy per-person.