This dataset contains detailed information on the composition of school bus fleets in the United States. The available data vary by state. For most states bus-level information, such as the school district that the school bus serves, its model year, and fuel type are included; for many others the manufacturer and seating capacity are also available. The dataset contains data from 46 states and the District of Columbia where this information was available. Prompted by requests from a range of stakeholders, WRI researchers compiled the dataset by submitting records requests to state governments between March and November 2022; they then harmonized and combined those state-level datasets to enable multistate analysis. This dataset can serve a range of environmental and equity use cases, including estimating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or benefits to public health resulting from the electrification of all U.S. school buses, planning for electricity grid upgrades related to electric transportation, and identifying school districts with the oldest and probably most polluting school buses. There are two major limitations of this dataset. The first is missing data from four states (Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Hampshire) and all the U.S. territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa). The second limitation results from methodological and structural differences between states’ original datasets.

Launch dataset

 

Image credit: DALL-E