School Board Looking at Ways to Increase Bus Ridership Is A Great Start

During this week’s Park City School Board meeting, the board was discussing policies related to discipline on buses. During that conversation they discussed whether this policy decision should be lumped in with other policy considerations to increase bus ridership. They specifically mentioned discussing a current rule that requires families to pay a couple hundred dollar fee to ride the school bus, if the family lives within close proximity to school.

I have written before about a resident who has been working with the school board to try and have this policy changed, so that more students could ride our school buses for free. It makes sense for a number of reasons:

• If we can have fewer parents driving to schools, it helps alleviate traffic bottlenecks around our schools
• School buses are generally safer for kids than private cars
• Many school buses have a lot of empty seats on them currently. It makes sense to utilize that space, if possible
• It sort of “fits” with the concept of our free public bus system

It’s really encouraging that the school board is both looking to increase ridership and that they are open to discussing the policy for kids who live close to schools. Just seeing the traffic backed up around Jeremy Ranch Elementary School during the last snow storm, made me both fear for our kids’ safety and reminded me that if we could even take just a few cars off the road, it would be an improvement.

Kudos to the school board for following through and I truly hope they find a way to fill the buses.