What it’s like to ride one of San Juan Unified School District’s new electric buses

Holding your breath and plugging your ears as you board the school bus, yelling over the Diesel engine noise just to talk to your friends right next to you, getting away with shenanigans at the back of the bus because you’re out of earshot from your teacher — these are experiences future generations of children may never know with the adoption of electric school buses.

Hopefully, future generations’ experience of climate change will also be mitigated by the proliferation of this technology.

Riding on one of San Juan Unified School District’s six new school buses is certainly a departure from most people’s childhood experience of riding the bus, but in subtle ways. The vehicles are nearly indistinguishable from buses of the past on both the outside and the inside, featuring the same yellow exterior, blue leather seats and aluminum walls most are familiar with. The key differences are not visual, but involve other senses. The lack of a diesel engine means that riders can hear conversations across the vehicle instead of combustion noise. Upon boarding the bus, riders can smell the new leather seats instead of gasoline exhaust.

Not all San Juan Unified school children will experience the smoother, quieter rides yet. The district, which serves more than 38,000 students, has a fleet of 137 non-electric buses. District spokesperson Raj Rai said that the plan is to replace a portion of the fleet with electric buses, with the other portion being alternative clean air vehicles that can travel farther for long range trips. The electric buses can travel around 130 miles on a three-hour charge. Most of the district’s buses travel around 100 miles in a day.

San Juan Unified debuted the new vehicles, which were funded through a Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation grant, Thursday morning. District officials say that the purchase of the buses is a small but significant step toward a sustainable future.

“This means cleaner air for everyone in our community to breathe,” San Juan Unified Board President Pam Costa said. “These steps we take towards reducing emissions, cutting costs and improving efficiency may seem small, but together they represent a significant leap towards a more sustainable future for our entire fleet.”

Heidi Sanborn, a board member for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, spoke to the importance of community partnership to address climate change.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” she said. “We can’t don’t this alone. We all work together — we got the grants, we got the buses, we got the infrastructure, we got the transformer, and this is how it’s all going to work. … And our partnership with the school district, let it just continue to be stronger than ever.”