BARRHEAD - It's the problem that never goes away, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic — drivers passing school buses while their alternating red flashing lights have been activated, which signals to other vehicles that students are either boarding or exiting the bus.
The ongoing issue of red light infractions and Pembina Hills’ unsuccessful attempts to deal with the issue was one of the highlights of the 2020-2021 Transportation Assurance Report, which was presented to Pembina Hills trustees at their April 14 meeting by director of transportation Shantelle Haitel.
Whether they are approaching a schoolbus or driving behind one, drivers are required to slow down and stop when a school bus has activated its alternately flashing red lights. (The only exception to this rule is when the bus is on the opposite side of a two-lane highway physically divided by a median strip.)
Haitel said that from September 2020 to February 2021, Pembina Hills’ bus drivers reported a total of 42 “fly-bys” when their flashing red lights were activated.
To combat the problem, Haitel said they did install exterior cameras on two school buses at a cost of $950.
However, even with these exterior cameras, “the RCMP still can’t seem to get a clear enough picture to issue fines,” she said.
There was only one instance where Pembina Hills was able to get usable footage from the camera, but the RCMP only issued a warning to the driver in question.
This has prompted the transportation department to debate whether or not to continue placing exterior cameras on their buses, Haitel noted.
One possible solution is the addition of extended stop arms on buses, which is being piloted in other provinces.
The problem with these extended stop arms, she said, is that they’re quite expensive at roughly $5,000 apiece.
As well, they’re not certain how well these extended arms would hold up in a rural setting where buses are travelling down dusty back roads.
“We’re on back roads all the time with every one of our routes,” she said.
Haitel said she is hoping the pilot goes well, as that might lead to governments providing some kind of funding for school divisions to install these stop arms.
Besides red light infractions, Haitel indicated the COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges for the transportation department this past year in terms of the added public health requirements around sanitization and contact tracing.
The constantly-evolving information being provided by Alberta Health Services (AHS) also posed some issues, as did working with the differing opinions of families who rode the bus.
Haitel noted some of the opinions that families voiced were very extreme on both ends of the political spectrum. Their drivers had to work at making everyone comfortable and to convince parents that they were adhering to AHS guidelines.
Ride distances and times
Haitel’s presentation also delved into statistics around ride distances for the roughly 2,300 students who registered to travel on Pembina Hills’ buses in 2020, which was down from the 2,600 students who rode their buses in 2019.
Haitel noted that 17 per cent of their students had a one-way bus ride time of just over an hour, which was up from the 14 per cent of students with a one-way bus ride time seen in 2019.
The average amount of time that Pembina Hills students rode the bus in 2020 actually works out to 39 minutes, which was up slightly from 34 minutes in 2019.
Noting she actually looked into why the ride times seemed to increase, Haitel said they’ve seen a trend of families moving farther away from their schools, particularly with people moving up to the Flatbush area in Westlock County.
As well, they’re seeing more Kindergarten students ride the bus from areas that didn’t have bus service before, which has forced the division to extend bus routes, she noted.
"These are areas you never expected people to move into,” she said.
There has also been a decrease in students riding in-town buses, which tends to make the average ride times go up slightly higher.
When questioned why in-town busing is included as part of average ride time calculations, Haitel indicated that is how the province calculates ride times.
In terms of average route duration by area, Neerlandia had the shortest rides at an average of 59 minutes, while Fort Assiniboine students had the longest rides at an average of 79 minutes.
Haitel noted that the Neerlandia area is very densely-populated, which leads to more routes being added and thus ride times being shortened.
She noted she will have to keep an eye on ride times in the Fort Assiniboine area, s there will be some Grade 12 students not riding the bus next year and the addition of some Kindergarten students in areas their buses don’t normally go.
The furthest distance any Pembina Hills student lives from their school is just over 38 kilometres, Haitel indicated.
However, the majority of Pembina Hills students either live 18 to 25.9 kilometres from their school (19 per cent) or 26 to 37.9 kilometres from their school (16 per cent).
Notably, eight per cent of Pembina Hills students live more than 38 kilometres from their school, while only seven per cent live within 2.4 kilometres of their school.
“It just goes to show how rural we are,” Haitel said.
