Moncton families, school bus drivers struggle with 'gridlock' traffic during morning drop-off
With more parents opting to drive their children to school this fall in response to a call to reduce the number of students on school buses, traffic has increased dramatically at some elementary and middle school drop-offs and pick-ups.
In Moncton's north end, Jeremy Plume has figured out a way to avoid the "gridlock." He parks a few streets away from Northrop Frye School and walks his son to the playground rather than trying to navigate the vehicle drop off.
"It's very congested, very congested," he said. "I think everyone's all at once trying to get in there and it's just an overwhelming amount of people."
The area has three anglophone schools including Northrop Frye, Evergreen Park and Maplehurst. There is also a francophone school down the road, École Le Sommet.
Angela Robinson, who drops her son off at Northrop Frye which is at one end of Ryan Road, lives off the other end of the road where École Le Sommet is located. She has been forced to shift the morning schedule to avoid the traffic, particularly at the nearby traffic circle that connects Horseman Road with Ryan Road.
"Sometimes [leave] a little earlier than our normal schedule, then slowly walk in," she laughed. "The Horseman circle in particular is pretty difficult to navigate in the morning so far — so hopefully they can figure that one out."
Transportation 'difficult balancing act'
Gregg Ingersoll, superintendent of the Anglophone East School District, said while 1,300 families opted out of the school bus service for their children over the summer, 400 families have changed their minds and opted back in after the start of school.
"So we designed our bus runs with those … students not being on the bus right?" he said.
"Our runs were set up based on that and now, as they opt back in, it's challenging for us to get them on the buses because of the restrictions on the number of students that can be on the bus."
Seating on school buses is limited, with only one elementary student allowed per seat, unless they are sitting with a sibling. In high school two students are permitted per seat as long as they are wearing a mask.
Ingersoll explains that with an increase in traffic at school drop offs, buses are experiencing delays trying to get to schools to drop off their first load of students before heading out for another run.
He describes it as a "difficult balancing act," and said district staff are trying to come up with solutions so students aren't arriving late.
No extra space on buses
Over at Bessborough School in Moncton's west end, Amanda Steeves, who has children in Kindergarten, Grade 2 and Grade 5, does her best to avoid the morning rush.
"Our mornings are actually pretty easy because we do park on a side street off of Bessborough Avenue to avoid the safe drop-off because the line gets quite long," she said.
Ingersoll hopes parents will come up with ideas like Steeves has to help deal with the drop-off rush.
The superintendent thinks many parents made the decision to opt out of the bus system because they were worried about safety, but now that school has opened, some are feeling more confident about putting their children back on the school bus.
But he says if those numbers continue to rise, the district will have some decisions to make.
"We're either going to have to adjust where pick-up times are, or try to get more runs in, or we're going to have to do something, add more buses." he said.
"Something is going to have to happen if this continues — we just don't have any room on our buses right now."
