The big yellow school bus is a US icon, but perhaps not one that future Americans will remember fondly. Chugging through neighborhoods, idling in front of kids’ houses, the vehicles spew both noise and fossil-fuel pollution all across town. In a city like Oakland, California, that significantly worsens air quality, especially in underserved neighborhoods already struggling with pollution.
This August, though, 1,300 special-needs students in the Oakland Unified School District will start riding into the future aboard 74 fully electric buses, operated by a startup called Zum. “Most special-ed students, they have health issues—asthma and stuff like that. They go to school on this noisy, smelly, rough ride, just to
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