TOP STORY
No Idle Promises Made When It Comes to School Bus Engine Shutoffs
By Art Gissendaner On a January school day this year, temperatures in Pittsburgh
dipped to zero, which created a quandary for Pittsburgh Schools Transportation Director Ted Vasser. Would the 20-minute idling exemption be adequate to ensure that enough buses were road- ready to start the routes on time? It would have to do. Pennsylvania law prohibits school buses
from idling more than five minutes on the hour in moderate weather and no more than 20 minutes in extreme weather, which in Pittsburgh in January can mean frigid temperatures. “Te idling exemption usually works pretty well for us, but
that morning it did not work out too well,” Vasser said. “Tat was an extreme situation. We want to make sure all our buses start
20 School Transportation News Magazine March 2011
and that all the equipment and accessories are working before they begin their routes. It’s not about children getting on a warm bus, it’s that there may be a problem with a bus, and students are stuck waiting in the bitter cold for the bus to come. Tey are fine once they are on the bus.” Nicole Portee, executive director for transportation for Denver
Public Schools, knows the feeling. “In the summertime idling is not an issue,” Portee said. “However, in the winter, we emphasize our idling policy of no longer than 10 minutes. And when the temperature drops to single digits or below freezing, our employ- ees come in early to make sure we can get our buses going so, by the time they make their first stop, the bus is warm.” Teir concerns are valid. On Jan. 25, for example, several Massa-
chusetts school districts either canceled or delayed school because their buses would not start in “minus double-digit” temperatures. Tese situations represent the hurdles transportation directors
in similar climates must clear in order to keep a promise made during the past decade to clear the air for children by implement- ing programs that prohibit school bus idling within 100 feet of a school. Teir efforts are paying dividends in cleaner air, fuel sav- ings and community relations. “We changed our contract for the health of the kids and the betterment of the area,” Vasser added. “We’re aware of particulates and we know what idling does.”
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