recommended placement for inroute bus chargers. * Analyzing bus route and schedule. * Analyzing life-cycle cost for all emerging relevant technologies. * Investigating potential funding opportunities to support this plan. A similar effort was performed in San Diego with the North County Transit District (NCTD) to provide planning support for a phased implementation to transition from diesel and compressed natural gas buses to battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The implementation includes modifications to NCTD's facilities, as well as revising the existing bus site layouts and siting potential in-route charging stations across various NCTD bus routes. Tools of the Trade New tools are helping agencies with zero-emission and climate change goals to identify potential technologies to advance environmentally friendly improvements to existing bus infrastructure. One of the biggest challenges transit operators may face in the transition to zero-emission buses is aligning achievable vehicle range with the daily sequence of routes that each bus is scheduled to run, what the industry calls a " block. " To address this challenge, STV developed a tool that enables project teams to study bus route operating factors in a dynamic model. The Performance Evaluation of Electric bus Mike Liu/Shutterstock.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 23http://www.MassTransitmag.com