How electrifying a Bay Area rail system made trains faster, cleaner, and more frequent

Because of a collaborative effort between a high school cross country team and Chispa, an environmental advocacy group, Arizona’s Phoenix Union High School District has bought its first electric school bus. While nearly three times more expensive than a regular school bus, the school district considered the long-term sustainability, not just in terms of fuel and maintenance costs, but in regards to larger, environmental efforts as well.

Kansas City is the largest U.S. city to adopt a zero-fare policy since its public bus system stopped charging riders in 2020. This policy change gives riders more financial flexibility and improves social and physical health outcomes as residents are walking more to get to bus stops and are also more connected to the community through increased access to transportation.

The Kansas City Streetcar provides fare-free transportation for residents, which helps to get them downtown and promote more economic development. The fare-free streetcar also makes transit more equitable by removing barriers for low-income passengers and improving mobility for people with disabilities.

Faced with poor air quality, the city of Oslo instituted a set of policy measures that have resulted in a dramatic improvement. Many of these policies center around transportation including incentivizing the production and purchase of electric cars, reducing the number of cars in the city, and creating car-free zones.

Madison's electric bus fleet, equipped with overhead quick-charging stations at route endpoints, has successfully operated through brutal Wisconsin winters (including -4°F temperatures) with minimal range loss.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program is funding zero-emission, electric school buses and low-emission buses for schools looking to make the switch from diesel.

In rural Huron, California, an electric vehicle ride-sharing program, called Green Raiteros, provides free rides for low-income residents who need to get to medical appointments. The organization's 120 clients can call in advance, or just show up when they need a ride.

The Final Mile project built 335 miles of bike lanes across five U.S. cities in 24 months to provide more transportation options outside of driving cars and make bike riding more accessible, thus addressing the urgent climate crisis, equitable access to goods and services and public health.

Ice rinks in Canada are swapping ice resurfacers that run on fossil fuels and propane for electric models. The electric resurfacers don’t emit pollutants like nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, so they improve air quality inside the arena and reduce environment-harming emissions.

Since it began operating in 2018, the Pulse has become one of the most successful bus rapid transit services in the country, leading to other states adopting similar systems. The Pulse is a cost-effective public transit mode that has dramatically increased ridership despite a national trending decline. In June 2021, the Pulse had carried almost five million passengers and counting.