School districts aren’t the only ones cutting routes. The economy and resulting budget shortfalls are also hitting transit agencies hard.
Take the example of Los Gatos, Calif., located southwest of San Jose. The Valley Transportation Authority earlier this summer canceled one of its major routes that bused high school students from the nearby foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, prompting many parents to form carpools. At least one parent told the Los Gatos Weekly Times this week that she was concerned about many teens making the drive alone or with siblings.
“I have a 17-year-old, and I don’t want him driving every day on Highway 17,” said Nancy Maynard-Herr. “There were two accidents last week on Summit Road involving teens. Three or four weeks ago, there was an accident involving a teen who was texting.”
Mountainous driving, as many school transporters know, can be dangerous enough for school buses much less 17- and 18-year-old kids. The article points out that teens under the age of 18 and with provisional licenses are prohibited from driving anyone under the age of 20 unless a parent or guardian is with them. But, a lack of transportation options or the need to transport a family member can make exceptions to the rule.
Teen drivers are not safe, especially when they’re tired. The Transportation Research Board found in its 2002 study “The Relative Risks of School Travel” that children driving to school or riding with other teenage drivers are 44 times more likely to be fatally injured than in a school bus. A recent study by Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., found that there here were 65.4 automobile crashes for every 1,000 teen drivers during the morning school commute in Virginia Beach. Meanwhile, . In the adjacent town of Chesapeake, there were 46.2 crashes for every 1,000 teen drivers in nearby Chesapeake, which starts high school an hour and 20 minutes later at 8:40 a.m.
Even when parents are driving, TRB found that children are 13 times more at risk than in school buses. Yet, this is all too often lost on the public. Despite a proposal from a nearby school district to run a morning bus route into town, not enough Los Gators parents signed up for the service.
