“We hear about it all over the country, in rural, suburban, and especially urban areas,” says Michael J. Loudoun has plenty of company when it comes to contending with such growing pains.Ī report released in May by the Texas Transportation Institute, which is based at Texas A&M University in College Station, showed that commuters in metropolitan areas are spending many more hours on the road because of traffic, costing each person hundreds of dollars a year in gas and delays.
Lunsford calculates that the time for the 60 buses sitting in traffic for 20 minutes a day was costing the district $100,000 a year, after factoring in drivers’ hourly wages and rising fuel costs. More than 60 buses pass through the intersection each day, often running late because of back-ups at the intersection. In one trouble spot, the district has hired an off-duty police officer at a cost of $30,000 per school year to direct traffic through Purcellville’s main intersection. “We have to work with what the driver is able to do, and build in plenty of time.” “It’s gotten harder every year,” she says. Under pressure to maximize the number of students a bus can pick up while also keeping ride times under an hour, she shows a route she designed that “ties itself in knots,” winding through country roads in the western side of Loudoun County, just to avoid one road with heavy traffic. Sandy Dennis, one of three district employees who design the bus routes, spends her days studying the computerized maps and calculating the speeds a bus can travel on the routes. Most routes have been downsized, either picking up fewer students or going to one less school, to deal with the increased traffic. With an average of five new schools opening in the district each year, the transportation division spends its summers overhauling bus routes. Each day, his staff pores over computerized maps to design bus routes that pick up the most students while avoiding the most congested roads. Such growth “keeps the routing system in chaos,” says Michael Lunsford, the district’s director of transportation. On a good day, she makes the five stops on her nine-mile route in about 45 minutes. Further, the district predicts it will have more than 63,000 students in another five years.ĭriver Lauran Fanelli waits in a line of traffic along her middle school bus route. The school system’s enrollment of 44,014 students is more than double the 18,270 students enrolled 10 years ago. And its growth is expected to continue for the foreseeable future as demand for housing pushes Washington’s suburbs farther and farther outward. Loudoun County has seen a population explosion since the early 1990s, going from just over 50,000 residents to about 250,000 today.
Last fall, school officials pushed back the starting time by 10 minutes because so many buses were chronically late.Īfter 25 minutes waiting to reach the intersection, Fanelli’s Bus 305 crosses Route 7, a busy thoroughfare that cuts across the Northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, and zooms through another new subdivision before reaching Belmont Ridge-just as the final bell for classes rings.
The temperature and the chatter rise as Fanelli, appearing unfazed by the delay, slips off her blue windbreaker and slides open the driver-side window to allow in the cool morning air.Īdministrators and teachers at Belmont Ridge Middle School are used to seeing buses arrive a few minutes late, often as the morning announcements are being read. He turns to chat with peers who are playing computer games and listening to music. “Uh-oh, we’re going to be here a while,” shouts Chris Seamus, a 6th grader. Ahead, a long line of cars, dump trucks, and other school buses inches toward the same intersection. Fanelli applies the brakes and brings her bus to a halt nearly a mile before the last intersection.
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