The wheels on the bus go round and round … and round!
Ever since congestion pricing went into effect, school buses have been moving faster and getting more kids to school on time, one bus company told Streetsblog.
NYCSBUS, a bus company that relies heavily on data, found that in the first full week of congestion pricing, bus speeds were up, early arrivals were up, and late arrivals were down in Manhattan below 60th Street, the so-called “congestion relief zone” where drives must pay $9 to enter in peak hours.
"We're really excited to see that there has been a demonstrable uptick in the number of on-time and early arrivals at our schools," said Varun Adibhatla, NYCSBUS's lead data analyst. "It's such an interesting natural experiment with congestion pricing, because it changes people's behaviors, and you get to see the changes in the urban environment. We were all nerd-ing out about all the different ways that congestion pricing could affect service."
NYCSBUS is one of around 50 companies that provide city school bus services. The company picks up special needs kids at their homes and drops them off at a range of public, private, and religious schools in the five boroughs. Out of 769 total NYCSBUS routes, 130 pass through the congestion relief zone.
“Our routes are really tailored around the special-needs students, and that's why we care so much about the service that we're providing," said Karunya Sabapathy, an environmental justice fellow at the bus company. The congestion pricing effects, she added, help the company with their overall goal. "Our thinking is, if roads have less cars, that makes it safer for both the drivers and the kids, and we can be more reliably on time."
To study the impact of congestion pricing on the buses, the team compared two groups of data:
- Group A: On time/late arrivals at schools within the congestion relief zone during the week of 12/16-12/20 (before congestion pricing went into effect and before schools let out for the end-of-year holidays).
- Group B: On time/late arrivals at schools within the congestion relief zone during the week of 1/6-1/10 (after congestion pricing went into effect and students had returned from said holidays).
The company is still going through the data with a comb, but for now, it shows promise for the tolling scheme:
- Overall there has been a 48-percent decrease in late arrivals at schools within the zone.
- In ZIP code 10002 (Lower East Side) which has the highest density of schools, the company observed a 24-percent increase in on time arrivals.
- In ZIP code 10038 (Alphabet City), NYCSBUS's on-time arrivals increased by 13 percent.
The buses are also going faster. Hannah Stauss, another environmental justice fellow at NYCSBUS, said that she was pleasantly surprised to see how many parts of Lower Manhattan were enjoying faster bus speeds, adding that although the numbers may seem small – around 2 miles per hour faster – the gains are worth noting in an area like Lower Manhattan, where speeds can be glacial.
"Even though we're seeing around 2.2 miles per hour difference in our speed, that's actually a 22-percent increase in speeds in Manhattan, because school busses are often moving slower and are stopping and starting," said Stauss.
The team analyzed over 1,900 bus trips over the two five-day periods, one before congestion pricing, and one the first week the cameras were turned on. She calculated the change in speed within each unique hexagonal location zone.
Buses dropping off kids late can cut into valuable time in the classroom, and many of the kids served by NYCSBUS rely on the free breakfast offered at school — a critical factor in fostering student learning.
"If they show up to school late, they don't get to have breakfast," said Adibhatla.
It’s not just data — bus drivers are seeing the speed improvements with their own eyes and their right feet. And faster driving speeds mean more hassles for the bus driver.
"Sometimes it's horrible, stressful. The kids get rowdy and most of them don’t like to be on the bus for too long. A lot of the kids have medical conditions and they have limited time that they can sit on the bus," said Carlton Williams, who has been driving a school bus for over 25 years. "When there’s no traffic we make it to the schools on time. When there’s a lot of traffic we can be a half an hour late or more."
Williams said crossing the Williamsburg Bridge in the morning and in the afternoon was noticeably easier.
"I felt a little bit of difference, especially going over the Williamsburg Bridge early in the morning, and again at around 1 p.m. when I go on my route. The traffic was much lighter going over the bridge," said Williams.
Bus driver William Bastien echoed this point.
“In the afternoon when I’m coming in, I am on Delancey Street crossing over the Williamsburg Bridge, I find it’s less traffic," said Bastien.
