Rashan Hembry
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WIth the 2021-2022 school year starting, transportation difficulties have impacted the lives of every student and parent, especially those who rely on bus services. Getting to school has been harder than it has ever been for these individuals. In 2021 bussing students has been a challenge because of the lack of bus drivers and the lack of consistency with these busses. COVID plays a big factor with this whole situation setting back the already bus shortage pre Covid even farther than it already was.
Parents have to go through the hardest struggles with this new busing issue and that isnt really addressed as much as it should be. When we think of problems with buses we automatically think that the issue starts with the children but it ultimately affects both. Imagine as a parent having to take off work or adjust your schedule because the person who is supposed to be taking you child to school cannot complete there job consistently.
“It does not just affect the kids but affects the kids and it also makes the parents late to work,” K.Rigaud had said.“And the other thing is that it affects how early you have to drop off the child”.
Students living at all different places need there own bus routes but when these bus routes are being stacked on top of each other with thirty plus students or even way more than that, this causes the main issue of the whole shortage situation. The bus shortage topic isn't just about the bus shortage it is more explicit than that with the routes being just a small fraction of it.
“Putting 35 students on a bus really causes a big issue on picking up students and dropping them off, K.Rigaud said Doing this causes a big controversy with the bus routes and is one of the real big issues of the bus shortages"
At a local Philadelphia school where the bus shortage has really hit them hard has only six out of eleven buses in there garage where previously they would have all 11. This has really affected the students and has also resulted in some students taking septa more often. Septa is a efficient way to get to school but isn't really the lifestyle you want to deal with every day. And then with these buses the routes are doubled up causing huge confusion.
“So like, if the garage manager knows that 11 kids don't have a driver that day they'll combine it with another route, And then there's more kids on the bus, which is obviously also a concern.”
Covid being at its peak and now that mostly all schools in the city of philadelphia are back in person students now have to actually go to school. Now the bus shortage is not a new issue , but it was already an issue pre covid. With a wave of covid it put the bussing at an all time low with drivers and how the drivers that are available aren't able to get the job done.
“So I think it has been exacerbated by COVID, because there's, You know driver shortage, but at a school like ours has always had a lot of buses we've always had transportation issues it hasn't been on this scale, definitely pickups in the morning and late drop off in the afternoon, like that's nothing new,” A staff member at a school had to say.
There are many different ways that can possibly not necessarily fix the situation but ultimately help the issue indefinitely. It all starts with the people in charge with the power to flip the result we have now and turn it into something beneficial for everybody.
“So one thing I would say is having one garage assigned to a school instead of three that could at least be helpful to the school staff. So I think that these bus companies can do a better job with recruiting drivers and need to be offering more incentives for them with higher pay. But if the district could support these bus companies with recruiting, that would be helpful. And then assigning just one garage per school instead of having schools like ours who have a lot of kids coming in off the bus. I think this issue is just so much larger. So it's a workforce shortage”The staff member exclaimed
This problem deserves a lot more recognition because of the fact that it is a safety issue and not just getting to school. The younger students are now being pushed to take public transportation and at such a young age that isn't the best option. Even for the more mature people, public transportation is not the best option for getting to school everyday back and forth. This just shows the amount of volume the issue has and that it can even get worse in the future if we stay in the direction that we are going right.
“The are now pushing transpasses to the younger students.The government is responsible for providing public school but is it appropriate that you are missing a hour a day because of your bus being late”
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