Electric school buses are a breath of fresh air for children | Nearly $1B in federal funding could help clean up the unequal health impacts of diesel pollution.::Nearly $1B in federal funding will help decarbonize transportation and clean up some of the unequal health impacts of diesel pollution

  • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Why not just make normal public transit? Like school busses aren’t a thing here so I took the regular bus to school like everyone else, it’s a lot more versatile too since people can take it to more places.

    • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      School busses don’t have adult strangers and other issues tied to them. They only go from people’s homes to school and back.

      • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        What issues do adult strangers cause? And what are the other issues? Also legs work pretty good to get to a bus station, I hear kids have those.

        • Patches@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Well for starters a not insignificant number of people of the city buses are homeless with mental health issues. They could get violent when teased by a child. Then there are the drug addicts, and the human waste that somehow appears on buses around the country daily.

    • bluewing@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Best you start walking now. School could be a mere 60 miles/96K one way from your home, (even if you live “in town” it’s still a 2 mile walk to school). Oh and the temperature outside is -35C this morning. Good luck! And yes, where I live that’s how far we need to bus students due to low population densities. And also yes, the winter time temperatures do get that low - it’s been around -15F/-26C every morning for the last 2 weeks. Toss in a nice amount of wind, and frostbite can occur in a mere handful of minutes on bare skin.

      School buses also ensure all students arrive at the same time. Usually a 10 minute window. It also limits possible accidents, with young children in particular, crossing uncontrolled intersections in busy neighborhoods. Since school buses drop their passengers off at the door.

      Lots of reasons to use school buses because not everyone lives within walking distance in quiet places or somewhere warm.

      • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Schools is canceled if it’s -20C for 1-6 grade and -25C for higher grades here, I’m assuming that is also a thing in the US. And I have walked to school at -25C before only to walk back because it was closed, I think I was in 3th grade. It’s not some deadly arctic weather you make it out to be, just dress properly.

        Also all of that is pretty irrelevant since I was saying you should have public transit that people can just use, including kids for getting to school, not that kids have to walk the whole way to school. Not just special busses children use twice a day.

          • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            How? My country is like high enough on the map to be on the same line as central Canada and we get like a week or two of -25C or more plus some random cold snaps.

            Also that’s completely beside the point since my whole point was to have normal bus lanes instead of a school bus.

            • BirdsWithBeefyArms@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Shrug, I’m not a metrologist to be able to explain everything that goes into why it’s normal to have -25C days in the winter here. Our cold snaps are down to -35-40C, not -25C.

              I didn’t respond to your other point for a reason. I only responded to your ‘I assume this is a thing in the US’ to correct your assumption. Do with that what you will.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Did you know that regular buses also come in electrical variants?

        Even more shockingly: So do trams and metros.

        • set_secret@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          obviously electric buses would be the solution which is shockingly the point of the argument. How dense are you?

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Less dense than thinking that public transport can’t use electric vehicles, claiming that public transport wouldn’t fix diesel issues.

              • barsoap@lemm.ee
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                10 months ago

                You:

                Why not just make normal public transit? Like school busses aren’t a thing here so I took the regular bus to school like everyone else, it’s a lot more versatile too since people can take it to more places.

                that doesn’t fix the toxic diesel pollution does it?

                OP there wanted to know why school buses instead of ordinary public transport buses, separate from any diesel vs. electric issue.

                You then went ahead and said “nuh-uh if we don’t have dedicated school buses we can’t fix diesel fumes”.

                That’s why you got downvoted, that’s why my snarky retort got upvoted. You may not have meant it like that but that’s how what you wrote reads to other people.

                • set_secret@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  I never suggested we don’t or do have dedicated school buses. My point is crystal clear: all diesel buses, school or otherwise, are toxic to humans. School buses are a bigger problem, directly exposing kids to these harmful particulates. It’s astonishing how my simple point about electrifying public transport and or school buses, which I’ve repeated ad nauseam, gets twisted. People’s preconceived notions or maybe their reading comprehension problems are skewing the real issue here. It’s not rocket science, yet here we are, going in circles.

      • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Neither do school busses since only kids take those. If like most people took the bus instead of drove that would help immensely even if it was the most polluting bus ever.

        • set_secret@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          um wtf? We all wearing gas masks or something? You realise diesel fumes are toxic to people right? Kids catching buses spewing toxic gas is not a good situation. I think you’re focusing on the climate changing issue of pollution and not the pressing issue, which is the toxic fumes that come from diesel buses.