To think maybe an American style school bus could be best solution?

[whensitmyturn]

Just the every day drop off for primary schools seems to be getting worse, as intakes are increasing and barely any schools with parking available. Drop offs and pick ups just feel like they are getting more and more dangerous.
Just on an average day I see so many near misses with children and between cars.

Yes in a perfect world everyone would walk but so many drop and go straight to jobs etc

I just think it would be so much better if a school bus picked the children up from their roads, the actual catchment areas for primary schools aren't generally very big so there aren't that many roads to travel down, surely it would take so much traffic off the road?
Do Americans pay extra for this? I would absolutely pay for this but no idea how much it would cost or if even feasible?
Aibu to think it would solve so many safety/ traffic issues in the morning especially?

My kids primary school have a bus that roughly serviced the catchment area - kids can use it from the day they start school. It's used more in the morning than the afternoon but it is very underused. Most parents drop their kids to school on the way to work - they'd have to wait on the bus coming before heading to work, their school opens the playground early to facilitate earlier drop offs and breakfast club or they drop the kids to a grandparents house/before school childminder who then drop the kids off.

It's very rarely used at home times, there needs to be a parent/career waiting at the bus stop when the child gets out - most of the kids are picked up by grandparents (who don't live on the route), childminders, afterschool care, parents who then go on to pick other kids up/ go to after school activities. It sounds great in theory but practically not so much.

Alternatively, school could set up a "kiss and fly" model.

TA or some member of staff outside the school - you drive up, staff take DC out of car and close door and you drive off. No need to park.

I have seen this work very well

The other great thing about the US bus system is that the buses are available for school trips, sports events, summer camps etc. We rarely pay anything towards school trips.

Yea we have the 'kiss/fly' model too, but the schools here have the room for it. The grade 5s open the door, your kid gets out and off you go, reverse for pickup but supervised by teachers, we have a sign to hang in the window with a number that corresponds to child. It's very efficient.

But aside from cost of buses, you need the depots to park them all, maintenance, a new department for logistics and paid drivers. It's a great expense.

It would have to be paid for and you might have a hard job of convincing some parents to do so. It wouldn't have worked for ds in mainstream because his sn. He goes on school transport but shares with only one other child plus an escort.

They have school buses where I live in Germany, they are mini buses and are paid for by the local council if you live over 2km away from the school. My daughter loves getting the bus, they only changed the route recently before that I had to drive her as no footpaths and over an hour walk to school, saves me driving over 24kms a day.

We have a bus service for secondary. They are the most awful looking old buses you've seen, billowing black smoke behind them. There's no way I'd want my kids on them, they speed along breaking the speed limits driving dangerously.
They've obviously passed the test, but it's clearly done on a budget.

We live in the US. Our local public schools provide free school buses.

Private schools who would be taking in pupils from a wide range of towns, also provide buses but you pay for them.

I think buses are only part of the issue. The bigger issue is schools accepting that parking/traffic/drop offs/pick ups are part of their responsibility. As far as I can make out in UK and Ireland the school has no responsibility really for what happens outside the school gates with regard to parking/traffic so there isn't much local residents can do when they get parked in or the street is completely congested. That isn't my experience at all in the US. Public school has crossing guards who direct traffic. Local streets have no parking 7-9 and 1-3 signs and this is enforced - you will get a ticket or the crossing guard will move you on. The local police will drive by every now and then. The head or deputy head is out in the yard before school starts supervising and would move on any car not complying with the system.

Private schools we have been to have sent detailed notices at the beginning of every year about drop off /pick up procedures. They paid for signs along the road to the school saying "no school parking" because they didn't want to piss off the neighbours. Teachers/facilities people are out supervising drop off/pick up so you don't get selfish drivers/parkers jamming up the whole thing.

Surely lots of parents still wouldn't use the bus as they would need to leave for work before the bus could collect their children.

I agree with other comments about our roads and schools not being suitable for this.

I live a in a rural area and we have lots of school buses. Over 50% of the High School pupils are bussed in as we have a large catchment. With 1200 kids in the school that is a lot of buses/coaches navigating small town street. There is no easy answer.

We have a school bus for our primary school (we share a catchment with a village about 3 miles away). Bus available from reception, well used.

It's the in-villagers who cause the problem. It takes at most 5 minutes to walk to the school from any point in the village, there's a walking bus and people still choose to drive their kids. Yes, they may be going on to work but it takes longer to fight your way out of the single-track road the school is on than to walk back to most houses....

So, we've provided lots of options yet parents don't want to use them.....

I do think something needs to be done about traffic generally to be honest.

I live in an area where it's famously bad but I don't think other parts of the country are any better. Our public transport links are awful too.

We lived in the US till recently, buses were free until about 2010 when our district had money troubles and started to charge. Worst decision ever, many parents started to drive in, and the drop off zone or kiss and fly (never heard that before) would back up all the way down to the highway at our local school or over 600 kids age 5-12.
It's a great idea if you can get parents to use it. Our school was a minimum of 5 minute drive to the nearest houses.
The school times were scheduled so that the same buses ran the route twice, first for the little kids 5-12 and then for the middle and high school, 12-18 they had a much longer ride, my kids lived 30 mins from the high school but were on the bus over an hour with all the pick ups.

Fantastic idea, it wod mean less congestion during school opening and closing.

Even if they did a Park and Fly style pick up/drop off. Massive car park with loads of pathways - drop your kids and all the local schools bussed from there.

Schools around here have variations of school buses and kiss-and-fly drop offs. One school staggers its start and leave times for lower and upper school: it's a junior.

The main problems are the parents who will stand around gossiping, even after the kids have gone in - I've seen them still standing there half an hour after the bell's gone - and those parents who get in their cars and start fiddling with their phones, oblivious to everyone waiting to park.
I've also seen the kiss-and-fly ditherers who have to get bags out of boots, double check that child has his water bottle, has remembered his homework etc. They cause fury and mayhem, too!

Oh, and the school buses - they've withdrawn several routes in the years I've been doing the school run and absolutely they are clapped out old bangers that barely make it up the hills.

And since when did it become the norm to drop off senior school children?!

Totally agree.

My son has been taking the minibus to school some days from Y4. Much less stress and greener, and has built his self-confidence. I can't remember what it costs, but not a terrific amount and well worth it.

Mainly rural area, and lots of school buses operate for senior schools.

Parking for village junior school (where there is no bus and the school TBH doesn't seem to give a toss about children's safety, inconvenience to the residents and churning up the verges) is a nightmare.

Interesting Pallisers and SquinkiesRule what the situation is in the US. It seems to me that we could take a leaf out of their book.

"It seems to me that we could take a leaf out of their book."

They say it's paid for out of their local taxation. So it's just like England, where the council pays for mandatory school transport. Some areas used to provide more than the minimum, but that's becoming vanishingly rare as council budgets are so tight.

On the assumption that there isn't any unallocated council revenue sloshing around, how would this be paid for? Higher council tax? Cuts to other services (if so, which)? Or out of the individual school's budget, supplemented by bills to or fundraising by parents?

I would still drive my do to school as I go and do things like shopping and other things while they are in school. I live a 10 minute walk.

I work most weekends though so get stuff done week days.

One significant problem is the road layout.
Most housing estates are served by just one entry/exit road. nd once inside every road is a dead end much like the trunk, branches and twigs on a tree. That means that a bus cannot drive through the estate and pick up children. It woud have to wait outside.. but there is almost always nowhere to stop and load.. Oh and not everyone from one estate will go to the same school.

Result.. it is impossible to offer a bus service. Chalk that one up to council workers in so called Planning Departments who don't think through how they do their jobs.

I would love a good bus service and would happily pay. My DD is in year 4 and we get a train two stops every morning, at a cost of £24 p.w.

Eve I do stuff like that too but we still walk. Sorry, but it's people like you who have absolutely no need to drive that make it such a pain for everyone. And it's hardly great teaching your kids that they can't walk 10 minutes!!

In general I am really sceptical as to how many parents have to drive their kids to school.

It would cost around £150-£250/day for the coach so £3-£5 each if you can fill it.

I walk dd to school and then walk back to my house for the car to go off and run errands. It's a short walk, under 10 mins, so I see no reason to add in the faff of driving there (car seats, buggy for the baby into the boot, will there be a space).