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Post by title1parent on Aug 22, 2008 5:57:30 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1120885,6_1_NA22_BUSES_S1.article District 203 eliminates some bus stops to save gas August 22, 2008Recommend By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com Naperville School District 203 is fielding complaints due to its effort to save money on fuel. This year, the district used VersaTrans routing software to determine the most logical and fuel-efficient locations for its bus stops. "We've really cut back the number of buses and routes that are out there," said Elizabeth Myers, District 203's transportation director. "But this is not a good start up for us. A lot of complaints." Parents of students who ride school buses were notified of each child's bus stop location, bus number and pick-up time via postcards mailed earlier this month. Still, many people have called upset that bus stops that have been in the same place for years have been relocated or eliminated, Myers said. "Most of the stops are the same, but some of them have been eliminated," Myers said. But most of those that have been relocated have not been moved too far, she said. "It's really not even a matter of a block. It is maybe half a block one way or half a block another," she said. "We're not asking them to walk three or four blocks," as the district's aim was to reduce those distances. The VersaTrans system uses information provided by parents when they register their children for school to assign bus stops along routes in a way that provides the shortest walk for the majority of the students who use each stop. According to a Talk203 e-mail District 203 distributed to parents Wednesday evening, this approach has resulted in a 25 percent reduction in the number of bus stops, which translates to "less fuel used for starting, stopping and idling buses." "It will not only save money," said Superintendent Alan Leis of the system, "but also move us into the future ... We'd been routing our buses by hand using maps for years, and it was just getting too complex and too time consuming." Leis said he recognizes there have been glitches, as there are certain things the system doesn't take into account when it assigns stops. That is why the district distributed the Talk203 message Wednesday evening - it wants to know what these problems are so they can be solved in the coming weeks. Leis stressed that changes won't literally happen over night. The district intends to take a few days to consider the merits of complaints, re-examine the drawing of its routes and the location of its bus stops, and make sure that any action it takes will improve the system. Leis emphasized that the district's No. 1 priority is getting kids picked up and dropped off. "I honestly believe we're on the right track," he said. "It's just a few more growing pains than we'd have preferred."
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Post by doctorwho on Aug 22, 2008 7:22:00 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1120885,6_1_NA22_BUSES_S1.article District 203 eliminates some bus stops to save gas August 22, 2008Recommend By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com Naperville School District 203 is fielding complaints due to its effort to save money on fuel. This year, the district used VersaTrans routing software to determine the most logical and fuel-efficient locations for its bus stops. "We've really cut back the number of buses and routes that are out there," said Elizabeth Myers, District 203's transportation director. "But this is not a good start up for us. A lot of complaints." Parents of students who ride school buses were notified of each child's bus stop location, bus number and pick-up time via postcards mailed earlier this month. Still, many people have called upset that bus stops that have been in the same place for years have been relocated or eliminated, Myers said. "Most of the stops are the same, but some of them have been eliminated," Myers said. But most of those that have been relocated have not been moved too far, she said. "It's really not even a matter of a block. It is maybe half a block one way or half a block another," she said. "We're not asking them to walk three or four blocks," as the district's aim was to reduce those distances. The VersaTrans system uses information provided by parents when they register their children for school to assign bus stops along routes in a way that provides the shortest walk for the majority of the students who use each stop. According to a Talk203 e-mail District 203 distributed to parents Wednesday evening, this approach has resulted in a 25 percent reduction in the number of bus stops, which translates to "less fuel used for starting, stopping and idling buses." "It will not only save money," said Superintendent Alan Leis of the system, "but also move us into the future ... We'd been routing our buses by hand using maps for years, and it was just getting too complex and too time consuming." Leis said he recognizes there have been glitches, as there are certain things the system doesn't take into account when it assigns stops. That is why the district distributed the Talk203 message Wednesday evening - it wants to know what these problems are so they can be solved in the coming weeks. Leis stressed that changes won't literally happen over night. The district intends to take a few days to consider the merits of complaints, re-examine the drawing of its routes and the location of its bus stops, and make sure that any action it takes will improve the system. Leis emphasized that the district's No. 1 priority is getting kids picked up and dropped off. "I honestly believe we're on the right track," he said. "It's just a few more growing pains than we'd have preferred." only a matter of time before we do exactly the same thing - as well as eliminate double busses for areas...goodbye 42 minutes for people in some areas of Watts - hello 1 hour. But of course just overreacting I suppose  |
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Post by warriorpride on Aug 22, 2008 8:05:56 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1120885,6_1_NA22_BUSES_S1.article District 203 eliminates some bus stops to save gas August 22, 2008Recommend By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com Naperville School District 203 is fielding complaints due to its effort to save money on fuel. This year, the district used VersaTrans routing software to determine the most logical and fuel-efficient locations for its bus stops. "We've really cut back the number of buses and routes that are out there," said Elizabeth Myers, District 203's transportation director. "But this is not a good start up for us. A lot of complaints." Parents of students who ride school buses were notified of each child's bus stop location, bus number and pick-up time via postcards mailed earlier this month. Still, many people have called upset that bus stops that have been in the same place for years have been relocated or eliminated, Myers said. "Most of the stops are the same, but some of them have been eliminated," Myers said. But most of those that have been relocated have not been moved too far, she said. "It's really not even a matter of a block. It is maybe half a block one way or half a block another," she said. "We're not asking them to walk three or four blocks," as the district's aim was to reduce those distances. The VersaTrans system uses information provided by parents when they register their children for school to assign bus stops along routes in a way that provides the shortest walk for the majority of the students who use each stop. According to a Talk203 e-mail District 203 distributed to parents Wednesday evening, this approach has resulted in a 25 percent reduction in the number of bus stops, which translates to "less fuel used for starting, stopping and idling buses." "It will not only save money," said Superintendent Alan Leis of the system, "but also move us into the future ... We'd been routing our buses by hand using maps for years, and it was just getting too complex and too time consuming." Leis said he recognizes there have been glitches, as there are certain things the system doesn't take into account when it assigns stops. That is why the district distributed the Talk203 message Wednesday evening - it wants to know what these problems are so they can be solved in the coming weeks. Leis stressed that changes won't literally happen over night. The district intends to take a few days to consider the merits of complaints, re-examine the drawing of its routes and the location of its bus stops, and make sure that any action it takes will improve the system. Leis emphasized that the district's No. 1 priority is getting kids picked up and dropped off. "I honestly believe we're on the right track," he said. "It's just a few more growing pains than we'd have preferred." only a matter of time before we do exactly the same thing - as well as eliminate double busses for areas...goodbye 42 minutes for people in some areas of Watts - hello 1 hour. But of course just overreacting I suppose Yes, overreacting - there was nothing in this article about increased "on the bus" times - only about optimizing routes by moving some stops around to save gas. Sheesh. |
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Post by Arch on Aug 22, 2008 9:13:03 GMT -5
The correlation is:
Saving money. 203 does not run double busses and the way they save money on fuel costs is to optimize the routes.
204 will be doing double busses and the first way they can save money (if it comes to that) is to eliminate the double busses and fill each bus to capacity. The reason there are double busses is to keep the travel times down. If they eliminate them at some point in the future, it will increase the travel times.
Yes, the article is about 203's situation, Doc was commenting about 'our' (204s) situation if we have to also cut fuel/transportation costs... I happen to agree with him that the most likely (and largest) cost savings would be eliminating double busses and filling each to capacity. I'd venture a guess that it will save more fuel than just relocating some stops 600 feet while keeping the busses half full at best.
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Post by warriorpride on Aug 22, 2008 9:39:01 GMT -5
The correlation is: Saving money. 203 does not run double busses and the way they save money on fuel costs is to optimize the routes. 204 will be doing double busses and the first way they can save money (if it comes to that) is to eliminate the double busses and fill each bus to capacity. The reason there are double busses is to keep the travel times down. If they eliminate them at some point in the future, it will increase the travel times. Yes, the article is about 203's situation, Doc was commenting about 'our' (204s) situation if we have to also cut fuel/transportation costs... I happen to agree with him that the most likely (and largest) cost savings would be eliminating double busses and filling each to capacity. I'd venture a guess that it will save more fuel than just relocating some stops 600 feet while keeping the busses half full at best. There's some presumptions/assumptions here. Do you know that there will be half-full buses, or might they use the smaller (half-size?) busses or maybe vans in the areas where they double-bus to keep commute times within a certain time-frame? The SD is well aware of the couple of areas that could have a long time on the bus if double-bussing wasn't done. There's been what I see amounts to a promise that that times will be kept within a certain range. If route changes are needed to conserve fuel then other areas should be changed. I just can't see the SD coming out with plan that has kids on a bus 60 minutes each way every day. |
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Post by Arch on Aug 22, 2008 9:45:27 GMT -5
The correlation is: Saving money. 203 does not run double busses and the way they save money on fuel costs is to optimize the routes. 204 will be doing double busses and the first way they can save money (if it comes to that) is to eliminate the double busses and fill each bus to capacity. The reason there are double busses is to keep the travel times down. If they eliminate them at some point in the future, it will increase the travel times. Yes, the article is about 203's situation, Doc was commenting about 'our' (204s) situation if we have to also cut fuel/transportation costs... I happen to agree with him that the most likely (and largest) cost savings would be eliminating double busses and filling each to capacity. I'd venture a guess that it will save more fuel than just relocating some stops 600 feet while keeping the busses half full at best. There's some presumptions/assumptions here. Do you know that there will be half-full buses, or might they use the smaller (half-size?) busses or maybe vans in the areas where they double-bus to keep commute times within a certain time-frame? The SD is well aware of the couple of areas that could have a long time on the bus if double-bussing wasn't done. There's been what I see amounts to a promise that that times will be kept within a certain range. If route changes are needed to conserve fuel then other areas should be changed. I just can't see the SD coming out with plan that has kids on a bus 60 minutes each way every day. It was said when the boundaries were announced that they would be running double busses to meet the travel times. They would pretty much have to with only a couple of stops each to meet their claimed times at the times of day they would be running w/ the traffic patterns and loads that exist. So, that I believe. There is no law that says they have to keep their 'promise' and I would not count anything said as a guarantee. It would not be the first 'promise' broken and it would not be the last one either. Having a kid on a bus that long is something the law unfortunately allows them to do and they have the right to decide to make it happen too if they so choose. |
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Post by WeNeed3 on Aug 22, 2008 9:55:12 GMT -5
I wonder if they did a study as to the number of kids at each bus stop or they evaluated the distance between stops. If they eliminated the stops with only a few kids at them, then moving them to another stop would not only save gas with the idling, but also time in number of stops the bus has to make and therefore a shorter time to school as well.
On my child's route, there used to be three stops down the same street. Each a block away. They finally eliminated the middle stop. I think they could eliminate another one too and make the kids walk another two blocks. IMO, the starting, stopping, idling etc. eats up the gas and isn't needed.
I'm sure the district would consolidate bus stops across the board before increasing the bus times for Watts.
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Post by eb204 on Aug 22, 2008 9:58:17 GMT -5
Well, there's not much that we can do except wait and see. No sense getting our underwear in a bunch if and until we see changes in our bussing routes/schedules. Last I knew, they were posted on the website so I would assume these won't change mid-year.
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Post by momto4 on Aug 22, 2008 10:02:10 GMT -5
A friend of mine in 203 has been having major headaches with the bus issues this week, especially the first day of school. She commented online about the article posted here. It seems that 203 does not post their entire routes, only sends out post cards with stop assignments, and does not (according to her) have a well-defined process for requesting route changes as 204 has had for years.
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Post by warriorpride on Aug 22, 2008 10:06:22 GMT -5
There's some presumptions/assumptions here. Do you know that there will be half-full buses, or might they use the smaller (half-size?) busses or maybe vans in the areas where they double-bus to keep commute times within a certain time-frame? The SD is well aware of the couple of areas that could have a long time on the bus if double-bussing wasn't done. There's been what I see amounts to a promise that that times will be kept within a certain range. If route changes are needed to conserve fuel then other areas should be changed. I just can't see the SD coming out with plan that has kids on a bus 60 minutes each way every day. It was said when the boundaries were announced that they would be running double busses to meet the travel times. They would pretty much have to with only a couple of stops each to meet their claimed times at the times of day they would be running w/ the traffic patterns and loads that exist. So, that I believe. There is no law that says they have to keep their 'promise' and I would not count anything said as a guarantee. It would not be the first 'promise' broken and it would not be the last one either. Having a kid on a bus that long is something the law unfortunately allows them to do and they have the right to decide to make it happen too if they so choose. And there is nothing stopping people from complaining about it until it is resolved to their satisfaction. I don't think anyone would support kids being on a bus for 60 minutes each way in 204. I wouldn't, and I don't care if it takes addtional busses (i.e. additional cost) to make it right. |
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Post by Arch on Aug 22, 2008 10:09:46 GMT -5
Everyone's predictions are apparently on the table, and we'll see what happens going forward to see who had a better guess.
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