School Transportation Group
News Archives - 2002
September - Carpool Decision Tree - Carpool Recommendations
The carpool decsion tree is a web-based suport tool to be used by school staff to analyze and find recommendations on ways to improve carpool traffic.
August - School Campus Carpool Facts
- In an average, more than 60% of parents arrived in the carpool lane sitting idle before the afternoon school bell time. Their average time spent in the carpool was triple the amount of those who joined the carpool lane shortly after the afternoon bell time.
- The actual loading and unloading of students in an efficiently managed loading area should take less than 10 seconds per vehicle. The complete process of a single vehicle entering the loading area, loading/unloading passengers, then exiting the loading area should be completed in less than 45 seconds.
- Limiting options for parents, such as restricting access to certain parking areas and enforcing no parking zone during the carpool hour, reduces circumventions that may lead to vehicle-to-pedestrian and vehicle-to-vehicle crashes.
- Schools with large walker populations should stagger release times to separate walkers from carpool traffic. The walkers should be released first to provide sufficient time before the carpool process begins. Schools should also consider implementing walking program such as Walking School Bus as a means to mitigate carpool traffic.
- If overflow of cars onto adjacent roadways is a problem at a school, then implementing a double queuing lane at some point in the carpool lane is a viable solution. This would require a supervisor to enforce, at least when first being implemented at a school, but would result in reducing overflow and providing more storage capacity.
- According to a recent national study, about 800 school-age children are killed every year in motor vehicle crashes during normal school travel hours — weekday mornings and afternoons during school months. Of these 800 deaths, only about 2 percent are school-bus related, while 74 percent occur in private passenger vehicles and 22 percent are the result of pedestrian or bicycle accidents. More than half of all deaths of children between age 5 and 18 occur during normal school travel hours when a teen-ager is driving.
- For schools experiencing tremendous traffic congestion or having safety concerns, technical assistance is available from NCDOT's Municipal and School Transportation Assistance. Please call Joel Cranford at (919) 250-4151.
View Best Practices in Managing Carpool Traffic
Run the Decision Tree Analysis: Carpool Traffic
June - Greatest Risk in School Travel is Not on School Buses
Every year, about 800 school-age children are killed in motor vehicle crashes during school travel hours, accounts for 14% of 5,600 child deaths that occur in nation's highways. According to recent study from the National Academies' Transportation Research Board, school children are at far more risk traveling to and from school in private passenger vehicles than in school buses. Of these 800 deaths, 74 percent occur in private passenger vehicles and 22 percent are the result of pedestrian or bicycle accidents.
The study, The Relative Risks of School Travel: A National Perspective and Guidance for Local Community Risks Assessment is available from The National Academies Press.
June - Where Does North Carolina Stand in School Travel Safety?
Now the National Research Council's report is out, where does North Carolina stand in school travel safety? Using identical data and query parameters as the National Academies of Science's study, between 1994-1995 to 1999-2000 school years, North Carolina rankings are as following:
- Private Vehicles
- 5th in the nation in school age fatalities
- 4th in the nation in fatalities, incapacitated injuries and non-incapacitated injuries combined
- 7th in the nation in school age fatality rate when compared nationwide using fall 2000 public school enrollment
- 7th in the nation in school age fatalities, incapacitated injuries and non-incapacitated injuries combined rate when compared nationwide using fall 2000 public school enrollment
- Pedestrian
- 7th in the nation in school age fatalities
- 7th in the nation in fatalities, incapacitated injuries and non-incapacitated injuries combined
- 4th in the nation in school age fatality rate when compared nationwide using fall 2000 public school enrollment
- 6th in the nation in school age fatalities, incapacitated injuries and non-incapacitated injuries combined rate when compared nationwide using fall 2000 public school enrollment
June - STG Completes Analysis on North Carolina School Walk Zone
Funded by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation, The School Transportation Group completed an analysis of guidelines and criteria for establishing school walk zones among North Carolina public schools. The result of the survey reveal that North Carolina public schools do not have guidelines for establishing school walk zone and has not established definition for walk zone. It is estimated there are 33 crashes per year involving school age children walking to school who live within the district defined "Walk-Zone" with 1 fatality every other year.
The report is titled, An Analysis of North Carolina Guidelines and Criteria for Establishing School Walk Zones (PDF:2.20MB)
March - Survey Shows Parents Misjudge Risk of Driving to School
The March 2002 issue of the School Transportation News featured an article on research conducted by Tori Rhoulac, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering who has worked at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) in the Pupil Transportation Group since August 1999. The article reports that Wake County parents miscalculate the danger their children face while being transported to school, rating the family car as safer than the school bus.
The research, funded through The School Transportation Group at ITRE, involved a survey of parents and quoted statistics from the NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System to indicate parental misconceptions about their child's safety during the daily commute to and from school.
A presentation, Wake County Public Schools Modal Choices Survey (PDF:413KB), gives the details and conclusion of the study.