Pupil Transportation Group
Research
Best Practices Managing School Campus Carpool Traffic
School campuses are experiencing traffic congestion problems during the morning and afternoon school commute time as an increasing number of parents are driving their children to school. This research project conducted detailed school campus traffic circulation (carpool lane) studies on 19 North Carolina elementary schools selected randomly based on the percentage of school bus ridership.
The project produced two tools for school administrators:
- Interactive decision tree analysis to determine ways to improve carpool traffic
- Interactive tool that illustrates best practices in managing carpool traffic schematic
In fall 2001, North Carolina Special Needs Transportation Policy Steering Committee was formed as part of the School Transportation Group activities. The purpose of the committee was to develop a statewide administrative policy and procedure manual for transporting students with special needs. The committee is an inter-agency effort made up by a group of very enthusiastic multi-disciplinary members to address a critical need in the state. The guide, Special Needs Require Special Care II (PDF:8.56MB), was updated in 2008 to reflect the most recent changes in legislation.
Identification of North Carolina School-Related Motor Vehicle Crash InjuriesThis is the results of a study to identify crashes involving children and youth ages 5 - 18 occurring on weekdays during morning and afternoon school commuting times for the school year August 2000 - July 2001. Local school calendars will be added to include year-round schools, to further identify cases that are most likely to be related to school travel.
An Analysis of School Related Transportation Impact in North Carolina
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction published a Facility Needs Survey for North Carolina public schools. The projected increases in K-12 students in the next five years are 79,099 (6.4 percent). The rate of growth will accelerate with high schools growing by 11.2 percent (36,422), middle schools growing by 8 percent (23,372), and elementary schools growth slowing to 3.1 percent (19,303) in next five years. These 79,099 additional students in NC schools will have the following transportation impacts:
- The growth of high school students will increase student drivers and parking spaces by 10,433 additional vehicles.
- Additional parent traffic generated at a school campus entering and exiting (not including buses and faculty) is 59,777 additional vehicle trips per day with elementary schools generating nearly half of the vehicle trips.
- The additional vehicle trips generated by parent traffic equates to 19.67 miles additional queue lane.
- Then there are an estimated 800 additional school buses and undetermined vehicle trips from school staff.
Research Papers/Presentations
Analyses of National and State Data (PDF:100KB)
Results of school bus rider comparison, school bus related crashes, and bicycle and pedestrian crashes.
An Analysis of North Carolina Guidelines and Criteria for Establishing School Walk Zones (available through TRB)
The North Carolina Department of Transportation's Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation sponsored research to examine the potential for developing school walk zone guidelines for the state. State law establishes a zone within a 1.5-mi radius of a school in which school bus transportation is not provided, "unless road or other conditions shall make it inadvisable to do so." Quantifiable guidelines are needed to clearly define the exception conditions to this law and to guide school officials in establishing and evaluating walking and biking corridors within this zone. To examine the opportunities, issues, and risks associated with school walk zones, the project team conducted a survey of North Carolina school transportation directors, focus groups with parents, students, and school and local government officials, and a spatial analysis of school-related pedestrian crashes. Results and conclusions led to several recommendations. They include clarifying and defining key terms, such as "walk zone" and "no-transport zone"; developing quantifiable guidelines to help school officials identify preferred walking corridors; and establishing local partnerships with representatives from public works, schools, departments of transportation, police, and community organizations. Also, pedestrian and bicycle safety and access issues should be included in the local school siting process, and pedestrian and bicycle training should be increased in elementary and middle schools. Other recommendations are to change the crash data collection process to better identify school commute crashes and to conduct further research on school walk zones and no-transport zones, to better understand their impact on modal split, school campus traffic congestion, school commute safety, and public costs.
Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) for Pupil Transportation (PDF: 94KB)
Automatic vehicle location (AVL) is an automated vehicle tracking system made possible by navigational technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), dead reckoning, and signposts. AVL has been used for over twenty years for purposes ranging from emergency location of vehicles to fleet management and monitoring to data collection...
Best Practices in Managing School Campus Traffic Circulation (available through TRB)
Working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Municipal and School Traffic Assistance Program, a research team from the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University studied the traffic at 20 elementary school campuses during the peak afternoon school-travel hours. Study results led to several observations and recommendations. On average, 60% of carpool vehicles arrived in the carpool lane before the afternoon school dismissal time and spend an average of triple the amount of time of those who arrived shortly after the bell-ring time. Establishing multiple loading bays and staffing each bay with safety patrol to assist loading can greatly reduce vehicle loading and unloading time. The act of loading and unloading students should take less than 10 s per vehicle; the complete process of a vehicle entering, loading and unloading passengers, and then exiting can be completed in less than 45 s. Limiting options for drivers will reduce circumventions that may lead to crashes. If spillage onto adjacent roadways is a problem, a double lane for the queue at some point in the carpool lane is a viable solution. School traffic congestion can be addressed by encouraging a mode shift from private vehicles to school bus transportation, walking, or biking. To convey the study results to school administrators and to illustrate recommendations, a website (www.itre.ncsu.edu/stg) was created; it contains a simple decision tree to assist administrators in identifying the nature of a traffic concern and to provide recommendations for appropriate solutions. It also illustrates schematics of the optimal layout for loading and unloading students, with explanations of the recommended operating procedures and video clips of actual operations.
Belmont Elementary School is located along Bolling Road in Roanoke Rapid City in a predominately urban area. Bolling Road is a three-lane roadway with the center lane being an exclusive turn lane...
In September, 1998, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction was awarded one of four national grants by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) to demonstrate strategies for reducing the incidences of motorists passing stopped school buses. The North Carolina project focused on three coastal school districts: Onslow County, Pender County, New Hanover County...
Using Global Positioning Systems to Improve School Bus Routing and Scheduling (PDF: 206KB)
School bus routing and scheduling in North Carolina is completed using TIMS, the Transportation Information Management System, according to state legislative mandate. TIMS uses an optimization algorithm to generate "acceptable" route alternatives to best serve the transported students and minimize the required number of buses...
Wake County Public School, NC Modal Choice Survey (PDF:413KB)
Presentation of survey results.
