LPG school buses hit an all-time high

© auto-gas.net12500 LPG-powered school buses across 47 states of the USA. We're impressed already, but keep our fingers crossed for even more such vehicles

Did you miss our LPG-school-bus-related news? Worry not – we didn't forget or stop caring about them, we were just waiting for something really big to come by rather than reporting another 5 vehicles here or 10 vehicles there. And so here we are, proudly presenting you the fact that the overall number of school buses running on autogas across 47 states of the USA, operated by 700 public and private companies, has exceeded 12000. Or, in fact, 12500.

That's the number presented by PERC – the US Propane Education & Research Council. Autogas-powered pupil-carriers have conquered almost all regions and territories across the USA, excluding only Hawaii, Mississippi, South Dakota and the District of Columbia. If they can be used everywhere else, including Alaska, we're pretty sure it's only a matter of time before school children in all the states get the opportunity to ride with the alternative fuel. Not that they particularly care, we suppose, but the environment and the school districts' budgets do.

Texas leads the pack with 2600 autogas buses in its service (in 47 districts), followed by California in a distant second spot with 1369 vehicles. The top ten list follows to include:

• Oregon (849 buses in 34 districts);
• Pennsylvania (782 buses in 54 districts);
• Illinois (568 buses in 46 districts);
• Florida (508 buses in 15 districts);
• Minnesota (495 buses in 36 districts);
• Ohio (485 buses in 28 districts);
• Nebraska (474 buses in 4 districts);
• and New York (467 buses in 92 districts).

More transportation directors are finding value with autogas school buses, because of their lower total cost-of-ownership, cleaner and quieter operation, and better maintenance experience. The interactive map highlights how widespread the adoption of autogas school buses has become and we think a lot of transportation directors will be surprised at how many school districts are having success with autogas.

Michael Taylor, PERC director of autogas business development