Walk, ride or drive? Walk, ride or drive? (May 28, 2004)

Survey questions how students get to school
by Teresa C. Brown

The city, with the help of the school district, is looking for traffic answers among Pleasanton students. Distributing a survey citywide, the city hopes to get a handle on how the district's some 13,000 students get to and from school every day.

Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) discontinued public school bus service in 1994.

From Rides to School, a 2004 transportation survey, the city plans to glean key information about the transportation habits of students that will be used to set a baseline to gauge the effectiveness of ongoing efforts to manage traffic congestion in Pleasanton.

Using the survey results, the city will be able to determine areas to target walking, biking and carpool promotions, said Lisa Adamos, the city's Economic Development specialist.

The city's 11-question survey queries parents regarding students' transportation habits and what factors influence those habits as well as what factors may change the practice.

"We're asking parents how children get to school on a normal basis, what school they go to, the distance from home to the school, do they walk, bike, are driven to school, car pool," Adamos said. "This kind of information gives us a baseline to see what people are doing now."

Four weeks after the survey was distributed, Adamos said about 10 percent have responded and responses continue to come in daily.

Surveys were sent home with elementary-aged students and mailed to parents of middle and high school students. The survey is available online at www.ci.pleasanton.ca.us/schoolsurvey.

Also interested in the survey results is the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA). While many students do walk, bike, carpool or get driven to school, a significant number use Wheels, a Tri-Valley public transportation bus system operated by LAVTA.

A supplemental bus service that primarily serves Pleasanton middle and high school students recorded 130,853 riders for the 2003 fiscal year (July 20, 2002, to June 20, 2003), said Cyrus Sheik, LAVTA's transit planner.

Called "school trippers," these supplemental service buses operate in Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin to fill students' needs, Sheik explained. "Routes are set up basically to operate for that need, for example, from Ruby Hill to Pleasanton Middle School."

He added that while up to 100 percent of the riders may be students, these routes are still open to the general public, and anyone can ride the buses.

Pleasanton has 10 tripper buses, compared to Livermore's three and Dublin's one, he said, and students are charged regular fares. The Wheels fare is $1.25 if paid in cash on the bus, or discount tickets can be purchased in advance in books of 10 tickets or more, averaging about 85 cents per ticket, he said, adding that most students use discount tickets.

System-wide, Sheik estimated that between 15-20 percent of LAVTA's general ridership is school-related in some way. The percentage was estimated from the ridership fluctuation during school holidays and breaks. However, he cautioned that it was difficult to monitor a demographic breakdown of riders on the general route lines.

PUSD offered school busing from 1946-94. At its peak, the school district system had 24 buses with 3,000 daily student passengers, approximately half of the district's enrollment.

The district paid 50 percent of the bus service cost and he state supplemented the remainder. Budget hardships forced PUSD to enact a pay-to-ride system in 1991.

Continued budget cuts eventually eliminated the service altogether in 1994. At that time, less than 300 students were utilizing the district's bus service.

The city's survey may be the first of its kind for the city, Adamos said, recalling a school district 1999-2000 survey that specifically discussed school busing, rather than transportation in general.

Adamos said she expected to have final survey results within the next month for presentation to the City Council in July or August. The results will also be made public following the council's presentation.

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