FIRST TAKE


Missed Opportunity or a Dodged Bullet? Unbeknownst to many, the White House in late


December posted a public request online to ask Congress to fund a “low-cost” $900,000 study on distractions that affect school bus drivers inside the vehicle. Surely, any student transporter who has been in


the game for more than five minutes can rattle off a dozen distractions that fray driver nerves. But here you had a study first proposed last year by the Trans- portation Research Board (TRB) at the center of a public petition, which in itself is newswor- thy. [Editor’s note — I tried to track down the petition creator, listed as “Riki L of Depoe Bay, OR” on WhiteHouse.gov. Depoe Bay is served by Lincoln County Schools, which contracts with a local bus com- pany. A representative told me she did not know of any employee who fit the name description. A school district official also had no information to share. ] Since I started reporting on this industry in the spring of 2001, one of


By Ryan Gray ryan@stnonline.com


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Linda Bluth, Peggy Burns, Michelle Fisher, John Whelan, Dick Fischer, Denny Coughlin, Ned Einstein, Glen Moyer, Art Gissendaner, Anson Stewart, Shanna Thompson Zareski


the most frequent complaints I’ve heard relates to the general lack of fed- eral funding for student transportation. Te regular commuting public is barred from accessing school buses for the protection of school children, which is one of the most vocal arguments made against the use of tran- sit buses and trains to transport students to and from school, especially younger ones. Still, when trying to secure federal dollars, it’s interesting how often you’ll hear industry folks speak of the American yellow bus as a vital part of mass transit: yes, it is, but not really. To date, the best opportunity to obtain federal funding has been through


EPA Clean Air programs, first via Clean School Bus USA and now through its cousin, the Diesel Emissions Reduction Program (DERP). But school buses must compete with the trucking industry. While school buses have received the lion’s share of DERP funds, according to the EPA, there is no dedicated funding. And who knows how much longer DERP will survive. So I sat up and took notice upon hearing of the petition asking the


White House to approach Congress to fund the TRB study. I did question how effective such a petition would be in this current economy, with the national debt continuing to skyrocket and Congress at an impasse, either unable or unwilling to do much about it during election season. I turned to our readers via our website and our Linkedin social net-


working site for feedback. While some expressed interest (one reader said signing the petition should be an “all hands” effort), the majority said the study would be a waste of time and money. One respondent said the survey is a good example of work that should be handled by the private sector. Another said the National Safety Council and the U.S. Department of Transportation already have data. Others expressed concern about any unfunded mandates that might result from the study. In the end, it became a moot point as of the Jan. 15 deadline, when only


some 200 digital signatures were obtained of the 25,000 needed to move the study forward. What’s your take? Let us know. n


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8 School Transportation News Magazine February 2012


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