Punctuality is something we teach our children to value.
But for many students in New York City, the school bus often keeps them from arriving at school on time.
"I keep hearing these kids are missing their first period math, and they're close to failing because they haven't had the continuity to receive the sessions," said Sara Catalinotto, co-founder of Parents to Improve School Transportation.
The current school bus system is plagued by multiple issues, ranging from antiquated city contracts to understaffing. Among them is heavy traffic.
For the 2023-2024 school year, heavy traffic makes up 60% of the bus delays in the city. A potential relief to the bus delays is congestion pricing.
On January 5, New York City launched its long-anticipated congestion pricing program, charging most drivers to enter Lower Manhattan, aiming to reduce traffic.
Among the estimated 570,000 vehicles entering the congestion zone everyday, there are the city's iconic yellow school buses, with about 150,000 students on them.
Since congestion pricing was introduced, Manhattan's school bus delays have dropped by 54.3%.
So far, congestion pricing appears to be a partial solution to the problem. Yet, it is not enough. It doesn't affect school buses that run in other parts of the city that are still stuck in heavy traffic.
More importantly, about 40% of the bus delays have different underlying causes than just traffic.
The long and complicated routes are one of the main root causes.
This is a problem that has lingered for over a decade. In 2013, bus drivers faced major layoffs after the removal of the Employee Protection Plan.
To compensate for a shortage of drivers, the city often combines multiple schools onto a single route—even when those schools are nowhere near each other or start at different times.
"Now more kids are late because routes are longer," said Catalinotto.
This results in students spending hours on buses each day, with some not getting picked up until after the school day has already begun.
With the chronic delays, families are suffering too.
"People in the family have to be on call to transport their own children for free. People have definitely had to leave jobs, turn down freelance work, cut their hours," Catalinotto shared. "We already paid for the bus. And now we're paying for this too."
While congestion pricing has shown promising results in Manhattan, addressing the broader school transportation crisis will require comprehensive reforms beyond traffic reduction alone.
