A Better Ride to School

When America’s public and private schools open again in a couple of weeks, nearly 56 million children will be headed back to the classrooms. And while much attention is given to what happens while students are at school, most probably don’t think much about how they get there. The relative lack of attention is amazing especially when considering that somewhere between 10 and 14 percent of rush hour traffic is due to school-related transportation. In fact, our nation’s fleet of school buses – which transport about 25 million of those students – is more than twice the size of all other forms of mass transit combined.

With a system as large as this (and one that provides such a vitally important service) it would be reasonable to expect that it would be a major part of transportation policy discussions. Unfortunately, while transportation planners and operators are well acquainted with how most people commute in and around metropolitan areas, school transportation is rarely, if ever, part of those discussions. A recent report by the nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners found that only one major metropolitan planning organization in the country – in Tampa, Florida – has a representative from its local school district.

Read more at U.S. News