How the School Bus Benefits the Entire Community
Since the first all-steel school bus was built in 1930, school buses have been improving the lives of families all over the country. Today they transport 26 million students to and from school each day, saving families time, convenience and money. But if you think that families of school-age children are the only ones who benefit from school bus ridership, you might want to think again.
Like other forms of public transportation, the school bus provides important benefits to the entire community—not just those who ride. More than half of the 50 million students who attend school every day take the school bus, saving about 17 million cars from joining the daily commute. Without it, rush hour could mean more time spent in gridlock traffic.
Because the school bus saves families about 62 billion miles of driving each year, there are environmental benefits too. Fewer cars on the road mean a reduction of about 56.5 billion pounds of CO2 annually. That’s more CO2 than a 747 would emit during a century-long flight! And those environmental benefits have only gotten better each year as student populations grow and school buses become even cleaner.