The School Transportation Disconnect
GoKid recognizes that school transportation and local traffic are tightly linked challenges. Over 50% of U.S. students travel to school by private vehicle, accounting for an estimated 10-14% of vehicle trips during morning rush hour according to Safe Routes to School, and surging as high as 30-40% in some communities.
The reduction of school buses across the country is pushing more private vehicles onto the roads as parents are forced to drive children to school, frustrating efforts by transportation authorities to reduce traffic, emissions, and collisions.Yet, school and commuter traffic are often addressed as separate from each other.
In an era of reduced school buses, It’s time for school administrators and transportation authorities to collaborate more closely on targeted school carpool solutions that can help get students to school in ways that help reduce overall congestion. A new partnership between GoKid, and RideAmigos aims to bridge this gap.
The School Traffic Problem
The congestion caused by an influx of parents driving kids to and from school each day can’t be overstated. In addition to the National Household Travel Survey finding that more than half of American children commute to school by private vehicle, a report by Region Forward found that school traffic is the source of a 26% increase in travel delays on freeways when school is in session, leading to frustrated driving and accidents. Countless communities of all sizes are feeling the impact, especially as factors like school bus driver shortages push more families to drive.
The domino effects are significant, from increased collision risk to detrimental emissions – all on top of the headache of daily traffic jams. The EPA estimates that idling vehicles emit 11 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, and many of those idling cars and trucks can be found in school zones every morning and afternoon.
How RideAmigos & GoKid Are Tackling School Traffic Together
RideAmigos and GoKid are joining forces to reverse this trend. The partnership empowers regional transportation demand management programs using RideAmigos’ Commute Hub platform to work with local schools to bring GoKid’s leading school carpool solution to school parents and integrate school carpool data generated. Likewise, the partnership opens the door wider for school and district administrators to partner with local transportation departments using RideAmigo’s Commute Hub on school carpooling aimed at reducing traffic.
GoKid is already working directly with schools and districts in 12 states to bring our secure, closed-network carpooling program, GoKid Connect, to school families. With 1.4 million carpool trips scheduled on the GoKid platform, schools can license GoKid Connect software from GoKid, and now they can also collaborate with planning agencies on the initiative.
“The reduction of school buses due to budget cuts and the bus driver shortage is increasing pressure on communities to offer an alternative transportation solution to students,” said Stefanie Lemke, CEO at GoKid. “We are excited to partner with RideAmigos to offer our GoKid Connect carpool program to schools and districts in regions implementing RideAmigos’ data-driven transportation demand management programs.”
Planning agencies where local schools work with GoKid will be able to access traffic reduction data and reporting tools to measure the impact of school carpooling initiatives, create incentives for participation, and track program performance. GoKid brings a secure platform for school parents to easily organize carpools with other families in their school networks. By linking these school and district-level efforts with broader regional traffic reduction strategies, RideAmigos and GoKid aim to put a substantial dent in the number of individual cars traveling on community and regional roads each day.
“The impact of daily individual school transportation on overall congestion and regional mobility can’t be understated,” said Soren Eilertsen, CEO at RideAmigos. “We are proud to offer our agency partners a data-driven way to connect school traffic reduction with their comprehensive regional mode shift programs through our partnership with GoKid.”
Benefits of School Carpooling on Reducing Traffic
Alleviating school zone bottlenecks can have wide-reaching benefits for communities:
– Decreased congestion: Getting more individual vehicles off the road during peak school commute times will help improve traffic flow across the board.
– Improved safety: Fewer cars around schools lowers the risk of collisions for young pedestrians and makes roads safer for everyone.
– Reduced emissions: Replacing single-family trips with carpools helps cut down on idling emissions, improving local air quality and community health outcomes.
– Convenient option in light of school bus shortages: With ongoing school bus reductions across the U.S., organized carpooling provides families with an alternative solution to individual driving.
– Time savings for parents: Sharing rides gives time back to parents to start their workdays rather than enduring long drop-off lines.
School traffic is a pervasive source of local gridlock, smog, and frustration for cities and towns nationwide. With over half of American kids traveling to school by car each day, contributing to as much as 40% of morning traffic in some areas, getting families to share rides is critical.
The RideAmigos and GoKid collaboration offers regional agencies a powerful tool to work directly with school districts on taking more cars off the road. School systems and planning organizations looking to make an impact on congestion and emissions should seize the opportunity of this innovative partnership model. Together, communities can put the brakes on the domino effects of school traffic.
