Abstract:

Transitioning to electric school buses (ESBs) from traditional diesel-powered school buses can reduce students’ exposure to air pollution and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. School districts and private fleet operators around the United States are adopting electric school buses with increasing speed, but so far ESB adoption has not been tracked in a centralized, public way. WRI aims to create accessible data and analyses that can help school district staff, advocates, policymakers, and other stakeholders make evidence-based decisions and support the transition to ESBs. This technical note describes the methods used to create a first-of-its-kind dataset that tracks ESB adoption across the United States.