Transport: School Run

Driving our kids to school is a relatively modern phenomenon and one we'd love to reverse - reducing congestion in the morning peak hours as well as giving us back time and cutting emissions.

This section discusses:

Existing Provision

What

Here we consider how all children get to school each day. A lucky few live close enough to walk but for the rest, transport is often a major concern, In extreme cases, lack of affordable transport can result in a child going to a school other than the one best suited for them and/or means they have to board rather than travel daily.

How

Those living within a few hundred yards of their school should be walking to school - but many are driven because of fears for their safety due to traffic levels and/or crime. Those living a long walk from school would either have to cycle or waste a lot of time walking - often in the rain and cold. Hence there is an even higher chance that their parents drive them to school.

The lucky ones have a school bus service - if they can afford it or are entitled to free transport. Even these ones, though, have problems should they need to stay late.

Driving our kids to school is also making them less independent. A good school bus service is an excellent place to make friends - with kids who live near you for good measure!

Volume and Frequency

Regardless of the detailed figures, experience of anyone in Britain at least who commutes is that far too many families drive their kids to school. The difference between the congestion on a normal term day versus that during the holidays is enough to impress on anyone the desirability of reducing the traffic involved in the school run.

Financial Model

In the UK, at least, it is only those living more than a few miles from school who qualify for any sort of free bus transport. There is a ring of children around each school for whom walking or cycling is impractical or unsafe yet they cannot afford or are not catered for by bus services.

The school my son attends provides very good bus services radiating out almost twenty miles from the school. However, the cost of a seat on these is prohibitive - to the point where next year, with three children attending the same school - it will be much cheaper to pay my father-in-law to drive them to and from school every day. This is because the overly simplistic and rigid fare structure takes no account of having several children on the bus. Nor does it take account of distance - so those living five miles from school (as opposed to our 13) find it ridiculously expensive and will drive even a single child there in preference.

We also feel aggrieved that on the one or two evenings a week when he has to stay late for rehearsals or practice, there is no later bus service and we have to pick him up by car anyway.

Providers

The provision of school buses varies around the world. The iconic yellow school bus of the United States is purpose built and run for the job whereas in the UK most school bus services are co-opted coaches run by ordinary bus drivers. Quality, cost, speed, safety and accessibility of services determine the take-up rate.

Trends

Traffic congestion is getting worse year on year. As we grow more environmentally aware, this needless pollution and energy use become increasingly embarrassing.

With Localnet

What

Every child in a localnet area who lives more than a few hundred yards from their school should be offered free transport to school - or, at the very least, transport that is economically preferable to driving them to school.

How

The OmniVans that visit every house in the area at least once a day not only carry boxes of goods for delivery, they also have fold-down seats so they can carry up to 20 passengers if empty of boxes.

Kids can jump aboard at their home or the end of their road when the delivery van comes by on its way back to the LocalHub having delivered the morning post, papers and breakfast. These minibuses are driven by one of a small number of local staff whom the children (and their parents) will know and trust at least as much as school bus drivers of today.

If each child is given a uniquely identifiable card, they just need to wave this at the reader on the van to gain entry. This not only lets the system and hence parents “track” their safe delivery.

Volume and Frequency

Getting kids to school is just a variant on getting commuters to work in the morning. It's actually much more predictable than the commuter run as they all go to the same destination - or one of a few in the area - and they all take their holidays at the same time. It is therefore easy to plan capacity to handle them.

In the morning this load adds to the commuter load as everyone heads for work around the same time. In the evening however, schools break up before most factories and offices so a flatter peak is experienced. Again, the load in this direction is easy to predict - though a few spaces may be unfilled if children stay late after school.

However, as the same delivery vans will be used for getting commuters home later in the evening, this is very handy for those who are coming home later than normal. They can simply catch the later van over the same route - at no extra cost. The system can even predict that they are likely to want to do so - as they did go into school that morning but weren't on the earlier van - and ensure an extra seat is available for them, if necessary, by adjusting the volume of goods to be carried slightly..

Financial Model

If we want to free up our roads from school traffic we should be designing a transport system that is more flexible and compares - on purely monetary grounds - favourably with driving our kids to school. That way, the time saved (where it is important) is a bonus rather than something that we end up carefully weighing against the extra monetary cost of using school buses.

An electronic bus pass that identifies the child also allows charging (in cases where free transport is not offered) by the journey and according to distance covered. This ensures that parents who, say, genuinely can drop their child off on their way to work three days a week are not dissuaded from using the bus the other two days as they would be if a flat fee per annum were charged.

Where more than one child in a family go to the same school, the charge for all of them should still not exceed the cost of taking them in a car. If the cost of a single child using the bus can be made much less than that of using a car then by all means, the cost of two or three could be higher - but should never be more expensive than getting the car out.

Providers

The existing providers of school bus services will find that their routes are simplified and have fewer stops as the localnet vans act as feeders into them at fewer locations but where more children board or alight. This “feeder” approach in which many vans are simultaneously bringing children to the main route, means that the larger buses will be significantly quicker. This in turn allows longer routes and/or later starting times for the main buses. Any reduction in the level of business (and hence turnover) of the bus companies should be much more than offset by the increased number of children using the buses and hence the additional routes that become economically viable.

Evolution

It may take several years - and the next generation of parents - to reverse the last twenty years of movement away from public transport for our kids. We should also see the average age at which children are sent to school “on their own” - but actually under the care of the driver - gradually fall.

 

Comparison

The table below assesses the impact of localnet on this service on a scale of -5 to +5 (details here)

  Existing services As part of localnet Score
Scope Big gaps in provision today. Every property covered. +3
Frequency One journey each way every day. Flexibility of days and times. +3
Security Variable - especially for those walking or cycling alone. As good as U.S. yellow buses. +2
Convenience A major hassle factor for many families today. Everyone's delivery route will be designed to get all the kids on it to school on time - and home again even if staying late. +5
Cost Very variable. Some free, others forced to take car due to price. Free where entitled. No more than petrol costs for all. +3
Quality Very variable. Consistent. Contingencies built in. +2
Carbon Footprint Horrible and getting worse. Buses are stop-start every few hundred yards. Cars for many are very wasteful. Electric feeder vehicles. Diesel buses on shorter routes with fewer stops. +4
Time Parents increasingly short of time but feel need to drive kids. Door to door delivery for almost all kids. +4
Resources Used Wears out everyone's car. The delivery vans have to go out in the morning anyway. +2
Reuse & Recycling Second car often mainly used for school run. Second car may not be needed so less need to recycle. +2
Landfill Waste Second car often mainly used for school run. Second car may not be needed so less landfill. +2
Other Differentiators

Better social experience for kids. More flexibility over choice of school for many.

 +2

Services