Reviving yellow
school buses could save kids' lives, study says
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Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003
By Michael Cabanatuan
Chronicle Staff Writer
As the big yellow school bus becomes an increasingly
endangered species in California, so, too, are children who
are forced to find other ways to get to school, a report
released Wednesday concludes.
California's transportation system is built for automotive
speed, not pedestrian safety, according to the report by two
groups that advocate alternatives to driving. And that places
the state's youth in danger, whether they walk, pedal or catch
a ride to class.
"We've built our neighborhoods for traffic rather than for
children," said James Corless, California director for the
Surface Transportation Policy Project.
Traffic accidents, the report points out, are the leading
killer of California children under 17. Between 1995 and 2000,
1,523 children died while riding in cars, and 572 were killed
after being hit by cars while walking.
The report calls for California to develop safe bicycling and
walking routes to school and bring back the big yellow buses.
Metropolitan Transportation Commission spokesman Randy
Rentschler said the commission, the region's transportation
planning and financing agency, has backed a program to make it
safer for students to walk and bike to schools by encouraging
sidewalk and bicycle lane improvements and encouraging more
students to walk or bike. It also helped fund a test program
offering discount transit passes to low-income students who
ride AC Transit.
California has the lowest rate of school bus ridership in the
nation, the report says, in part because buses lose out to
education when it comes to funding. Just 16 percent of public
school students rode school buses in 2001, down from 23
percent in 1985. Nationally, the percentage rose from 51
percent in 1985 to 54 percent in 2001.
With fewer school buses, students are left to ride in cars or
walk or pedal bicycles, and in California's car culture,
automobiles are more popular than the alternatives. Fear of
child abduction and sprawling development patterns also
increase reliance on the auto as a means to commute to school,
the report says. That increases not only traffic but
pollution, the report says, as well as the likelihood of
children getting killed or hurt in accidents involving cars.
About 74 percent of Californians younger than 17 relied on
cars to get between home, school and activities, according to
a 2001 Caltrans study cited in the report. Another 16 percent
walked or rode bicycles while only 8 percent rode school buses
and 2 percent took public transit.
"We're forcing children to negotiate dangerous streets to walk
to school or we're forcing parents to drive them," said Diana
Williams, executive director of Urban Ecology, an Oakland
organization that supports more environmentally sound cities.
The decline of the school bus in California is driven by the
lack of a state requirement to provide bus service, financial
constraints and a low state reimbursement for transportation,
which forces many districts to pay for buses from their
general budget. Most other states, the report says, mandate
bus service and pay more of the costs.
E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com
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