A report jointly released by non-profit organizations Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Reason Foundation and Transportation for America outlines several ways that tax revenue could best be spend to address challenges to maintaining and improving the nation’s transportation infrastructure.
The researchers said the federal deficit of more than $14 trillion coupled with rising fuel costs are lessening the earning power of federal and state gasoline taxes meant to fix the nation’s aging roads, bridges and railways. The researchers added that the Highway Trust Fund has required three infusions of general funds from the U.S. Treasury, amounting to $34 billion, to remain solvent. Meanwhile, the gas tax has not increased since 1993. The 44-page report, titled “The Most for Our Money,” covers seven transportation tools that the researchers said could improve the nation’s transportation system in a more “taxpayer-friendly” manner.
While none of the sections specifically address school bus transportation, a “local control” budgetary item for individual states, the outlined tools could affect student transportation operations on many levels and could play a large role in impacting student safety, both on the approximately 480,000 yellow buses navigating America roads each school day but also the roughly quarter of a million public school students who get to and from class using some other mode of transportation. The report discusses transportation scenario planning, high-occupancy toll lanes (HOTs), bus rapid transit, intelligent transportation systems, intercity buses, teleworking, and local street connectivity.
The term “school buses” is used only once in the report, on page 17 when sharing a case study of express lanes that were added to Florida’s section of Interstate 95. The researchers noted that HOT lanes are increasingly being considered for metropolitan areas to increase highway efficiency and reduce the need for more costly lane additions. But the example indicates one way in which student transportation via yellow bus could be improved through a more prudent investment in transportation infrastructure.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced its “Urban Partnership by Agreement” initiative in 2006 to battle traffic congestion in metro areas by implementing the four “Ts,” those being tolling, transit, technology and telecommuting. One of the four projects awarded was 95 Express, which converted three existing high-occupancy vehicle express lanes, or HOVs, to HOTs along 21 miles of the I-95 corridor between Miami-Dade County and Broward County. The Florida Department of Transportation created an additional lane in each direction by reducing lane width from to 11 feet from the previous 12 feet and narrowing the median width. The project also reduced the buffer separation between the regular lanes and the express lanes.
Motorists who carpool were required to register to use the new lanes, and school buses joined the list of vehicles permitted that are exempt from registering. Also making that list were motorcycles, public transit vehicles, motorcoaches, and emergency vehicles. All other motorists must pay a toll ranging from $0.25 to $6.25.
The researchers found that the toll way saved an estimated $9 million in motorist delays in the first six months. Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Reason Foundation and Transportation for America also found that the average speeds in the local lanes increased to 41 mph from below 20 mph in the first six months, and the average speeds in the express lanes increased to 57 mph from below 20 mph.
The report also discusses the potential increased use of intercity and motorcoach bus services to address in the rural transportation challenges, such as freeing the movement of workers from the suburbs to cities and back again. The report states that intercity buses can keep as many as 55 cars off the nation’s highways. It’s a similar statistic to one from the American School Bus Council that one yellow bus can remove 36 vehicles driven by parents or teens on the way to and from school. This figure could be even greater if factoring in multiple tiers of bus routes.
