Dataset of U.S. School Bus Depots

The document details the creation of a dataset identifying 11,309 school bus depots in the U.S. using remote sensing and aerial imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). The dataset is intended to support environmental justice analysis regarding air pollution hotspots in underserved communities, as well as electricity grid planning for school bus electrification and climate hazard risk assessment. Findings show that 51% of depots are located within 350 meters of a school, with North Carolina having the highest number of depots (841).

• The research identified 11,309 school bus depots across Washington, DC and the 48 contiguous U.S. states, with a median of 218 depots per state.
• Over half of the identified depots (5,730) are located at schools, which the study defines as being within 350 meters of the nearest school.
• The distribution of depots varies by state, with North Carolina recording the highest count at 841, followed by Texas (697) and New York (618), while South Dakota and Wyoming had the lowest at 29 each.
• The dataset was developed using an object-based approach with National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) aerial imagery to locate buses by color and size; validation against independent records showed an omission error rate of 15.2 percent.
• The dataset is designed to analyze the location of depots in underserved areas to address air pollution hotspots and to assist in electricity grid planning for school bus electrification.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Dataset of U.S. School Bus Depots. https://www.wri.org/research/dataset-us-school-bus-depots

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Dataset of U.S. School Bus Depots. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/dataset-us-school-bus-depots.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Dataset of U.S. School Bus Depots |url=https://www.wri.org/research/dataset-us-school-bus-depots |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutenddataset, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Dataset of U.S. School Bus Depots}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/dataset-us-school-bus-depots}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }