Dear Brentwoodians,
School Buses
Today is the first day of the Alberta Teachers’ Association strike action, and the way things look, the teachers might still be out by the time this issue is delivered in early November. The grade 4 student in my family is happy for now, but it’s a huge problem for families and could potentially set kids back in their learning as well. Here’s hoping that a deal is reached soon, one that recognises that Alberta, as Canada’s economic engine and (by some measures) richest province, deserves a well-funded public education system that meets the varying needs of all children.
The strike means that traffic on the surface streets around Brentwood and Charleswood was noticeably and significantly lighter this morning as I walked to my office at U of C. The poor state of bussing at Calgary schools means that students who live outside close walking distance of their school are often assigned congregated pickup spots that are far from home or school and inconvenient–we have been assigned pickup spots as far away as Highwood or West Hillhurst to get our child from Brentwood to Collingwood School. We and many other families try to walk or bike whenever weather, work schedules, and after-school activities permit, but often have to make the trip by car.
The result of poor school bussing is thus that tens of thousands of extra car trips are undertaken every morning at peak rush hour, by people rushing to get their kids to school before the bell and then get to their own work on time. This results in many different costs: the additional car emissions, the fuel burned, the time wasted sitting in traffic, and the inevitable accidents that happen when people are driving in a rush. Someone should add these up and see if they are outweighed by the savings of having a bare-bones school bus system.
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