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Recommendations
- Prohibit Bus Idling: Drivers
should be required to turn off bus engines immediately
upon reaching their destinations. Buses should
not be turned on until fully loaded. This is
especially important when buses are queued while
loading and unloading at schools and transfer
stations. Exceptions should include conditions
that would compro m i s e passenger safety—e.g.,
extreme weather conditions, idling in traffic.
In cases where engine operation is necessary
to activate safety equipment such as flashing
lights, buses should be retrofitted to permit
battery operation. Idling restrictions should
be defined by state statute and include clear
and substantial enforcement power, instead of
the present Department of Environmental
Protection regulation 22a-174-18 (a)(5).
- Retrofit Diesel Buses to Lower Emissions: Diesel
school buses should be refitted with particle
traps and catalytic converters designed to reduce
emissions. Retrofit of the existing fleet should
be completed by 2003.
- Require School Buses to Use Ultra Low
Sulfur Fuels: Ultra low sulfur diesel
fuel (<15 ppm) should be required for all
school buses. Acid aerosols, ozone precursors,
and fine particulate emissions would be substantially
reduced in the vicinity of children.
- Replace Bus Fleet With Low Emission
Vehicles: Existing diesel fleets should
eventually be replaced with new low emission
vehicles.
- Allocate the Cleanest Buses to the
Longest Routes: Bus companies and
towns should allocate buses with the lowest
emissions to the longest routes. Meeting this
recommendation requires emissions testing to
distinguish between clean and dirty buses.
- Set Priorities: Priority for
replacement with low emission vehicles, retrofit
technologies, and filtration equipment should
be assigned to communities with the highest ambient
pollution levels, and to bus routes with the
highest traffic intensity within communities.
- Limit Ride Duration: School
districts should reduce students’ exposure
to air pollution by limiting time spent on buses.
This is already regulated by some town policies.
Limiting ride duration would reduce exposure
to pollution generated by diesel buses, and by
other traffic.
- Require Routine Maintenance: Buses
should be monitored and maintained to ensure
that emissions remain at their lowest possible
level. Special care should be taken to ensure
that exhaust systems are fully intact and secure,
and that engine compartments are completely sealed
from interior passenger space.
- Test Tailpipe Emissions: Tailpipe
emissions should be routinely tested on all school
buses. This should be required by federal regulation,
and implemented by the State.
- Establish Passenger Cabin Air Quality
Standards: The federal government
should establish standards for air quality
within vehicles that provide assurance of health
protection for children.
- Require Filtration Equipment: The
federal government should require the installation
of air filtration equipment on school buses.
Equipment should be capable of removing vehicle
exhaust from air entering the passenger cabin.
This is especially important when buses travel
in areas with high traffic intensity, or high
outdoor background concentrations of pollutants.
- Adjust Federal Air Quality Standards
to Account for Indoor and Vehicle Exposures: EPA
should adjust outdoor air quality standards
to better account for probable indoor and within-vehicle
exposures to air pollution. The Clean Air Act
demands that standards be set to provide “an
adequate margin of safety,” however governments’ neglect
of particulate levels within homes, schools,
and vehicles make it impossible to conclude
that standards protect health.
- Expand PM2.5 Monitoring Network: The
State of Connecticut should expand its monitoring
network to more fully capture the local variability
of air pollutants.
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