School's Open, and Traffic Is Worse Than Ever

[stopbush]

My kids went back to school yesterday in SoCal. We're in the Capistrano School District which has seen major budget cuts this year. One of the biggest cuts was to school buses - they now bus only 87 kids to my daughter's jr HS. The HS has almost no buses.

It's not like the schools provide bus service for free. The school system currently charges parents $400 per student to ride the bus for the year. At an average of 40 students per bus, that's $16,000 per year per bus. I have a hard time believing that the school system couldn't run a bus on $16,000 per year. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't see the logic behind cutting out this service to hundreds of kids when the parents are paying for it as an additional out-of-pocket expense for each kid they elect to put on a bus. Surely, we're paying at least that in wasted gasoline as we sit idling at the top of the hill leading down to the campus.

Both of the schools my kids attend sit in gullies, with one road in and out of the campus area. Eliminating buses means that parents now drive their kids to school. Today, the traffic was ridiculous. SUV after SUV, all with one kid getting dropped off, burning gas and idling for 15 minutes at a time as they wait to head down to the one road at the school.

Obviously, these schools were designed with buses in mind. Eliminate one bus that could transport 45 kids and you have 45 cars on the road instead of a single bus. Multiply that by 20 or so buses and the traffic is at a standstill. Car pooling is one option, but it's hard to find parents who can be consistent about their responsibilities. After school is worse as kids go every which way to after-school activities at day's end. The few parents I've talked to who are willing to car pool want me to bring the kids to their place first, which is farther from the school than driving from my house.

On Sunday, the high school sent out a voice message urging parents to bring their kids 30 minutes early to school to avoid the logjam.

Some local towns are now suing the school system over this as the approvals these towns gave to erect the schools in their present locations was based on traffic promises from the district that included buses as a major component of mitigating traffic. These towns are now seeing traffic levels double and triple what they signed on for when they gave their approval for these centralized schools that bring kids in from around the county.

It's really ridiculous, and I don't see how things are going to improve short or long term.

[itsrobert]

1. My kids live over 2 miles from their schools

In San Diego. I asked about buses and the school district said the criteria was for busing disadvantage and special need kids as their first priority. There was budget for healthy kids to ride the bus, if they could walk on their own. Even if it's 3 miles.

[stopbush]

3. It's 5 miles to my son's school, 6.3 to my daughter's.

Walking really isn't an option, especially as it's up and down big hills all the way.

[virgogal]

6. A 3 mile hike to school would be good for the older kids. That would

be 6 miles a day-----nothing for a healthy young person.

[LiberalSEO]

2. Kennedy Hwy - Also known as the parking lot

Traffic in Chicago was awful today. the I-90 (also known as Kennedy Hwy or the parking lot) was worst than most days.. and it's pretty bad all the time :(

[itsrobert]

4. On the other hand, maybe the ecomomy is picking up

I noticed last year the traffic on the highways was very light. Let's hope it's a sign of recovery.

[surrealAmerican]

5. Welcome to DU, neighbor.

I don't understand what your post has to do with the OP. Was this school related?