The school buses your kids will ride are nothing like the ones you used to take to school. That is because the largest deployment of all-electric school buses in the nation is happening right now in the Sacramento area.
The buses are so quiet that you have to get right up to one of the wheel wells to hear much sound from the motor that powers one of these full-size buses. They are even more quiet inside.
Photo by Ryan Harris, KFBK
Bus driver Eric Coleman participated in a demonstration of the buses on Friday. He will take the wheel of one of the 16 electric buses that Twin Rivers Unified School district will use-- part of a fleet of 29 that will also go to Elk Grove and Sacramento City Unified.
Photo by Ryan Harris, KFBK
Coleman says everything about the bus is different, from the controls to the musical tone it puts out so you can hear it coming.
The regenerative brake system also helps put a charge back into the bus, which Coleman says should be able to complete both a morning and afternoon route on a single charge, not only quietly but cleanly.