School buses causing too much pollution?
Stephan Wilkinson at The Truth About Cars has noticed that school buses in his neighborhood seem to all leave at the same time, carrying only a few kids each. Additionally, they idle for long periods of time before and after they leave, at which time they belch out harmful toxins. He seems to think that the school system could make much better use of the equipment that they have and that they could probably get by with much less. This is likely a problem in wealthy communities the country over. A potential solution exists in biodiesel buses and hybrid buses, which are likely to hit the market soon enough, but in the meantime, if this is a problem in your own school district, you can do what Wilkinson plans to do and speak with the school board.
[Source: The Truth About Cars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 8:18AM (3/04/2008)
Kids don't vote. Seniors do. Three guesses where elected officials decide to spend local tax revenue.
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Tim 8:42AM (3/04/2008)
When you put lipstick on a PIG, you still have a PIG.
The best solution would be to replace public schools and school buses with private schools and vouchers.
Taking you kids to school would provide for much needed bonding time, or maybe setting up neighborhood carpools would turn those next door strangers into friends. The competition between schools would make for a FAR better education.
Comrades, let the whining begin.
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Bob Moffitt (Bob from ALAMN) 9:03AM (3/04/2008)
The American Lung Association of Illinois is managing an EPA grant to retrofit 15 school buses in the St. Louis suburb of Roxana, IL. The ALA-IL alo chairs the Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative, a public-private partnership to promote cleaner diesel.
Re: biodiesel, school buses could reduce their particulate emissions by 12% if they used a B20 blend of biodiesel.
We are also working on a school bus project in Minnesota I will be able to discuss further later this month.
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Chad 9:55AM (3/04/2008)
Yeah, everyone driving their kids to school will obviously create less pollution and traffic.
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Truth Seeker 11:34AM (3/07/2008)
Here in Raleigh,Nc, the lovely liberals in the school board have decided to carry on with their ridiculous "social engineering" project.
They take kids from the good neighborhoods and bus them 45 minutes away to the "hood" and visa versa, all in the name of forced diversity. So if you are a parent who works and hard and does well enough to get your family into a nice subdivision with good schools, they still force 50% of the kids out of the local schools,that are in walking distance! Busing kids for 45 minutes away from the close schools, all the name diversity, then complain about pollution and fuel cost? You created the problem! Stop the madness NOW!
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Phil L. 10:53AM (3/04/2008)
I don't know about his jurisdiction, but the schools in my area run on a staggered schedule to maximize transportation resources. I often see packed buses that drop off at school - and immediately begin pickups for the next school.
The school bus market is huge - and with consistent, local schedules, an obvious choice for green technologies. That said, school districts have optimized their student transportation costs to the penny. They'll be wary of new technology that hasn't been proven - and they don't have the money to take chances on neat ideas that might not pay off (well - unless there's grant money involved).
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s10 12:25PM (3/04/2008)
These yellow school busses belong in museums, not on the road.
Instead of building these ridiculously heavy, uncomfortable and dangerous monsters it is time to use normal modern busses with seatbelts. It can be done, but it wont be done.
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psarhjinian 11:47AM (3/04/2008)
@Truth Seeker and Tim,
Or, you know, you could fund all the schools equally and stop screwing the poor. Other countries (western Europe, Canada) with fully funded, equitable public education systems have better results than the US's hybrid system, and spend less per capita. The perverse imbalance in the quality of education doesn't exist elsewhere.
It's rather like the American healthcare system, actually: broken because more time and money is spent deciding who shouldn't get services then would be if services were carte-blanche provided to everyone.
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Mulad 11:51AM (3/04/2008)
I have a love/hate relationship with diesel. The pollution controls have taken a really long time to come about. I remember holding my breath whenever I walked past the row of buses idling out in front of my elementary school back in the '80s/early '90s because of the choking effect of the exhaust.
Right now, I live not far from a bus corral for the city of St. Paul, MN. At peak times, they can go by a few times each minute, and they are *loud*, especially when it's cold outside. I haven't really seen them putting out smoke very often, though it does happen.
If this guy saw buses with only 5 kids on them, then a lot of money is probably being wasted by the school system in his city. Of course, for all I know, a yellow school bus is just as cheap or cheaper than a Ford E-series converted into a small bus. Then again, back when I was in school, buses would first pick up kids at the elementary school and then head to the high school before heading out and dropping kids off.
I believe that, for many years, school buses have exposed kids to a lot of nasty pollution, and I've been surprised that it's taken so long for people to get interested in making school buses run more cleanly. I bet if you compare a transit bus with a school bus, the transit bus will be a lot cleaner. Of course, the cost differential is probably massive too.
So many schools have so little money, though. Vehicle maintenance is probably a huge issue, and I'm sure a lot of buses are far dirtier than they could be, whether if they were simply tuned-up properly, let alone fitted with some exhaust aftertreatment. I've seen mention of school bus retrofit programs, but doing upgrades on the order of 15 buses barely even counts as a drop in the bucket. I went to a school district where there were only a little over 100 students per grade, and even we must have had 20-30 buses.
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darius 1:16PM (3/04/2008)
We are in Southwest suburbs of Chicago. My wife drives the kids to school as we are one street too close to the school. Yet there is a bus picking up 2, yes 2 kids just a street away every day. She tells me she sees quite a few buses pulling over to school with under 10 kids in each and many with only a few. Many of the buses are full size as well. Great use of resources and out taxes.
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superdart 6:37AM (3/05/2008)
Another great pollution adder: Here in Texas it is basically rush hour twice a day at the schools. Every parent on the planet wants to drive as close to the building as possible. God forbid little Timmy has to walk a few hundred feet.....
Just think, 100s of cars just sitting around idling waiting for their kids to get out of school.
Hydrogen fuel cell mass transit buses are already being tested in several cities around the world (climate trials) and should be going in to large scale implementation in the next 2-3 years. These buses have a 250+ mile daily range, and zero emmissions. Hopefully local gov'ts will see the benefits of such systems for school use.
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Norris Shelton 7:32AM (3/05/2008)
The school buses in Louisville, Ky (Jefferson County Public Schools) all run on bio diesel. It is not the final solution, but it is a step in the right direction.
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darius 3:30PM (3/05/2008)
superdart, luckily the hydrogen production is also zero emission... or should we ignore that little detail? ;)
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