Planning for packed buses

Fuel prices are expected to push more kids onto school buses, leading to logistical and financial trouble

DURHAM -- Triangle school officials are bracing for a big jump in bus ridership as classes resume today, an increase they're attributing to higher fuel prices.

Though most Triangle school districts said they couldn't put a figure on the increases because school isn't in full swing, all are predicting that fewer parents will be willing to spend extra cash to drive their children to school or have their teens drive themselves. That could shift the burden of high fuel costs onto already strapped school transportation budgets.

Durham high schooler Raechel Higgins had looked forward to driving to school this year, but the 16-year-old and her younger sister will both be boarding the bus to Jordan High School.

"As much as I would like to drive, we can always use that gas money for something else," Raechel said.

When drafting bus routes for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, transportation director Mary Lin Truelove said she purposely overestimated the students on each bus this year to make way for new riders.

"I do philosophically believe that gas prices will impact our ridership," she said.

But between the district adding Morris Grove Elementary School this year and another grade level at Carrboro High School, she hopes she left enough room for new riders.

"I may be pleasantly surprised," she said. "I may be horrified."

In Durham, transportation director Scott Denton said he took a cue from the Durham Area Transit Authority, which has seen a 15 percent increase in bus riders over this time last year.

If school bus figures follow suit, districts will have to draw more bus routes and use more vehicles and drivers.

In every district, this could strain already tight fuel budgets. In Durham, officials are predicting a $700,000 gap in what the 33,000-student district will spend on fuel and what the state will subsidize.

The increase in riders also comes at a time when districts are trying to make their bus routes more efficient. In many neighborhoods, stops will be farther apart, and drivers will take more linear paths through winding subdivisions. Idling is out of the question.

Filling up seats on those yellow buses can boost efficiency, said Alvin McNeill, director of transportation in Wake County, where nearly 69,000 students ride the bus.

"It's a benefit for us," McNeill said. "It keeps the number of car-poolers down. It creates less traffic. It's better for the environment."

Doubling up

Bus ridership has jumped 10 percent at Holt Elementary School in Durham, where year-round classes started in July, said principal George Koop.

The routes are running smoothly, but once the district's 43 other schools come into session today and have to share buses, his school might see "double runs." That phrase is like a "four-letter word" to school administrators, Denton said.

A double run is when one bus driver carries two routes from the same school. For instance, when classes let out, the bus driver quickly runs a group of students home to a single stop in a nearby neighborhood, then rushes back to the school to pick up another load of students to drop off on a regular route.

Administrators dread double runs because it often means children have to wait longer for a ride home. Youngsters get tired and antsy. Sometimes rowdiness or fights break out among bored and frustrated children.

"It puts your teachers on duty for a longer time when they have duties after school and just requires more supervision," Koop said.

It's a priority to get students home as quickly as possible, Koop said.

But some students say time is more valuable than gas money.

Eliza Pendergraph will commute 20 miles to and from Durham's Northern High School, draining about a gallon of gas a day from her 1988 Chevy Cavalier.

Driving to school costs her parents about $20 a week. But she can leave home at 6:50 a.m. in contrast to getting to the bus stop at 5:30 a.m., before the sun even comes up.

If gas "got overly expensive, I guess I would ride the bus," she said. "But it would have to be pretty high."