“Too Dangerous to Walk”: Mayor Responds to Parent’s Hazardous Busing Concerns

Hazardous Busing: A Safety Issue for Every Child

Tomorrow  the Lakewood Board of Education will have a special meeting on hazardous bus transportation. The agenda includes a resolution authorizing up to $14.88 million for the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority (LSTA) to provide hazardous-route transportation for eligible nonpublic-school students. The funding is based on up to 12,642 students at a maximum of $1,177 per student, with the final amount subject to verification.

At the Lakewood Township  meeting last Thursday, Mayor Raymond Coles addressed the issue of hazardous busing in response to a parent who had sent emails to the Township and spoke up during the meeting online about the safety of children traveling to school.

According to Mayor Coles, the Board of Education will be paying for courtesy busing for non-mandated public-school students who live on hazardous routes. However, approximately 300 students will still not be covered.

As for hazardous busing for yeshiva and private-school students, the mayor said they are looking into the issue and indicated that the money should go “across the board.” to both private and public school.

A parent, who has children attending a yeshiva on Cross Street, pointed out that the route is too dangerous for children to walk. He questioned why parents are being forced to pay exorbitant amounts for LSTA transportation while there is no money specifically allocated in the new budget for the safety of children getting to school.

This raises a fundamental question: If a road is considered too hazardous for children to walk, shouldn't safe transportation be provided equally to all students public, yeshiva, and private?

Would you let your child walk to school down Cedarbridge Avenue, Cross Street, County Line Road, Route 88, or any other hazardous road with no sidewalks and heavy traffic?

For many parents, the answer is obvious: No.

Most of Lakewood is not safe to walk to school with no sidewalks, safe shoulders, and safe crossings at busy intersections.

And that is precisely the problem. There are roads in Lakewood that are recognized as hazardous for children traveling to and from school. New Jersey itself recognizes hazardous walking routes and allows districts to provide transportation for students who would otherwise have to walk along those routes.

Yet under current New Jersey law, a student who lives within the mileage threshold is not automatically entitled to transportation simply because the route is dangerous. Districts may provide courtesy or subscription busing and may charge parents for that service.

In Lakewood, until a few weeks ago the Township paid the Board of Education for courtesy and hazardous transportation for public-school students. Private-school families, however, are required to pay out of pocket when they opt into courtesy transportation through the LSTA. With the annual fee increasing to $675, families are being asked to pay for transportation because the alternative is for children to travel along roads that have been designated hazardous.

This should not be a question of whether a family can afford the bus. A child's safety should not depend on whether his or her parents can afford the transportation fee.

A distance measured on a map does not tell us whether a child can safely walk that route. Two miles on a sidewalk is not the same thing as two miles along a road with no sidewalk, heavy traffic, high speeds, blind curves, dangerous crossings, or other hazards.

The mayor's response is an important step, but the question remains: Will the new budget provide funding for hazardous transportation for every child who needs it, regardless of which school they attend?