North Carolina State University

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North Carolina State University

• Institute for Transportation Research and
  Education

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Mickey Michael Program Manager for the Pupil
Transportation Program Mickey_Michael_at_ncsu.edu (91
9) 515-9999 x2 Bonnie Sluder Project Leader for
the Pupil Transportation Program TIMS
Project Bonnie Sluder_at_ncsu.edu [phone]
x4 Our offices are in building Research IV on
the NCSU Centennial Campus
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Problem Statement

• Currituck County has a number of students that
  have extremely long ride times times well in
  excess of 1 hour and 15 min.

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• We, therefore, had a request to investigate
  improving service by reducing the long ride
  times, where possible for school bus riders in
  Currituck County.

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Options Investigated

• Picking up students for multiple schools on same
  bus.
• Currituck has a history of not allowing students
  from Elementary , Middle, and High School sharing
  a bus except in extreme circumstances.
• This was still considered to
• be an undesirable option.

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Options Investigated

• Adding additional buses to provide more runs in
  order to shorten overall ride times.
• This option is very costly and in these economic
  times is not a feasible nor a practical solution.

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Options Investigated
3. Adding additional runs in order to shorten
overall ride times.
Adding additional buses to provide more runs in
order to shorten overall ride times.
I thought that you just said that!
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Options Investigated

• Currently in Currituck only one am run is done by
  every bus. The buses then sit until it is time
  to do the pm run.
• IF the buses were able to do additional runs,
  then you are getting the advantage of additional
  runs without the expense of additional buses.

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Options Investigated
Additional runs can be can be accomplished by one
of two methods

• Doing multiple runs to the same school.
• The problem with doing multiple runs within the
  same school is that the students delivered on the
  first set of runs will have to be monitored by
  someone at the school and could be a discipline
  issue.

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Options Investigated

• Doing multiple runs to different schools.
• This is generally the best solution. Runs for
  school A are completed. The buses are then
  free to do runs for other schools.
• This requires a variance in the bell times so
  that the buses have time to complete the second
  set of runs.
• We have determined that a 1 hour
• staggered bell time is needed.

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Options Investigated

• Doing multiple runs to different schools.
  (contd).
• No extra monitoring is required.
• Buses that are currently servicing all of the
  schools in the group can be pooled to provide
  additional runs for each school and often can
  result in a reduction of the total number of
  buses needed.
• Overall ride time may be also reduced.

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Bus Rider Distributionfor Moyock MiddleMoyock
ElementaryShawboro Elementary
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-Run Summary- Moyock MiddleMoyock and Shawboro
Elementary Schools
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How do we get 29 runs with only 17 buses?

• Moyock Middle School has 12 buses doing 12 runs.
• Moyock Middle finishes all of their runs by their
  bell time
• Moyock Elementary needs 8 buses to do 8 runs and
• Shawboro needs 9 buses to do their 9 runs.
• The 12 buses that have finished the Moyock Middle
  will now leave and begin doing runs for the
  elementary schools. Since a total of 17 total
  buses is needed for this second tier and there
  are only 12 available from the middle school, 5
  additional buses are needed. Since these buses
  are not involved in the Middle School schedule,
  they will leave earlier to take care of the
  longest runs for the elementary schools.

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Comparison of Total Ride Times
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Moyock
Total minutes for student ride time
30-59 Min
0-29 Min
60-89 Min
90
0
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Ride Time Summary
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Bus Rider DistributionforCurrituck Middle
School Griggs Elementary School
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Bus Rider DistributionforCurrituck Middle
School Griggs Elementary School
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-Run Summary- Currituck MiddleW.T. Griggs
Elementary
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How do we get 14 runs with only 10 buses?

• Currituck Middle School has 10 buses doing 10
  runs.
• Currituck Middle finishes all of their runs by
  their bell time
• Griggs Elementary needs 4 buses to do 4 runs.
• By combining all of the buses from Currituck
  Middle and Griggs Elementary, there are now 10
  buses available for Currituck Middle. Once four
  of those 10 buses completes their runs will now
  begin doing runs for the Griggs Elementary
  School. Since Griggs only has 3 buses now, the
  extra bus will allow more runs transporting the
  same number of students, but they can do it with
  overall reduced ride times.

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Comparison of Total Ride Times
Note These numbers DO NOT include the students
on Knotts Island or on Corolla
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Currituck and Griggs
Total minutes for student ride time
30-59 Min
60-89 Min
0-29 Min
90
0
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Ride Time Summary
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Summary

• Propose to stagger bell times
• Current Bell time - Moyock Middle (318)
• 1 hr. - Moyock Elementary (316)
• Shawboro Elementary (310) 1 hour
• Current Bell time - Currituck Middle (308)
• 1 hr. - Griggs Elementary (320)

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Implementation Problems

• Possible resistance to the time shift.
• There could be more acceptance in the
  Moyock/Shawboro area due to the fact that there
  may be more residents that came from other areas
  that have staggered bell times as a normal
  feature of that school system.
• The Currituck Mid./Griggs residents may be more
  resistant to a change in the status quo and the
  proposal may not as readily accepted.

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Implementation Benefits

• Reduce average ride time in the target areas to
  reasonable levels.
• Some students rode as long as 2 hours and 16
  minutes, now the longest ride time is 1 hour and
  23 minutes.
• The number of students with long ride times
  went from 309 students to 72 and most of those
  were actually in the 65 minute range.
• This was done without a significant impact to
  students riding less than 30 minutes and
  virtually no impact on students currently riding
  from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.

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Implementation Benefits

• Minor routing changes to current routing, less
  upset to students routine with the exception of
  bell time change.
• Little or No reduction in driver time.
• Older students delivered home earlier in the
  afternoon to be on hand to help with younger
  students when they arrive home.

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Implementation Benefits

• Frees three buses. Two could be utilized to
  eliminate proposed capital outlay for additional
  buses needed now to handle student population
  growth.
• (savings of 150-160,000)
• Highly flexible schedule that could quickly
  adjust if fuel prices rise again. Might need to
  return to less service (longer ride time, but
  still not as long as current), but the same
  number of buses would be better able to handle
  additional runs for other schools.

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Implementation Benefits

• Additional capacity is available on these buses
  and they would be able to absorb growth with a
  minimal disruption in routing.
• Highly flexible schedule that could quickly
  adjust if fuel prices rise again. Might need to
  return to less service (longer ride time, but
  still not as long as current), but the same
  number of buses would be better able to handle
  additional runs for other schools.

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