Schools across the country face a complex array of transportation challenges—like persistent driver shortages, mounting safety concerns, and pressing environmental considerations—that demand innovative solutions. With this in mind, it's key for school administrators to explore emerging trends that are poised to shape the next decades of school transportation.
7 Top Trends in School Transportation
Understanding how to embrace pivotal advancements in technology, changes in policy, and shifting societal expectations can help redefine how your students get to and from school. The result: safer, more efficient, and more eco-friendly journeys for your community's children.
1. Electric Vehicles (EVs)
EV adoption has been increasing over the past few years. Decades ago, California was the first state in the country to introduce electric school buses. Some school districts in the Golden State, such as Oakland, now operate a fully 100% electric school bus fleet—with 2,000 more electric buses on their way to other California school districts.
Today, ten times as many students ride electric buses as did just three years ago. The environmental benefits and cost savings for schools can be huge. Researchers note that switching from traditional fossil fuel-based buses to electric buses:
- Cuts carbon emissions by 92%
- Saves schools millions of dollars in costs (including lower fuel costs and reduced operating and maintenance costs)
- Reduces air pollution around schools where bus and car emissions have been linked to respiratory illnesses, cancer, and other problems in young children exposed to air pollution
2. GPS Tracking and Real-Time Monitoring
In a recent survey of schools and families across the U.S., 3 out of 4 parents said they wished they could track their child's journey to and from school, and half of parents want real-time data. This kind of tracking system also benefits schools, allowing administrators to:
- Monitor the location of your students
- Know in advance exactly when students are set to arrive or depart
- Plan proactively for delays, route deviations, and other safety concerns
As part of building a more data-driven school transportation program that addresses this emerging trend, SHARE Mobility's sustainable student transportation model simplifies student transportation management by offering real-time vehicle tracking. You and your school's families will know exactly where students are, whether they're coming to school in the morning or heading off to a sports game.
3. Smart, Dynamic Routing
Traditional school bus routes are no longer meeting community needs. More and more students attend schools outside of their immediate area, and many families live in transit deserts that aren't serviced by buses, subways, and other forms of public transportation.
"Inefficient and inflexible routes leave many children sitting on school buses for hours," warn critics. "Scientific studies have shown that long bus rides can negatively impact children’s mental health and academic performance. Additionally, unpredictable departure and arrival times put stress on parents, causing them to be late for work and/or worry about where their child is."
Rather than having students trek to a fixed bus stop and be at the mercy of a static route that follows the same path regardless of road conditions or the number of students waiting at each location, dynamic routing takes a different approach. It accounts for traffic patterns, student locations, road conditions, congestion, and other factors.
Smarter bus routes send the right-sized vehicles to the right spot. The result: reduced travel time, lower fuel consumption, and more efficiency when moving your students. Routing, vehicle selection, and even driver assignment are handled automatically to make sure your operations are always optimized.
4. Mobile Apps for Parents and Students
More and more parents and students want a single source of information for school transportation, whether that's a schedule for morning pick-ups and afternoon drop-offs or better visibility on route maps. Some schools have tried to retrofit their traditional transportation systems with third-party tracking and apps. However, as parents and schools in Louisville, Kentucky, recently learned, third-party apps can be inaccurate and suffer from data security breaches.
With SHARE Mobility's school transportation solutions, we've built our transit platform and apps in-house to work in sync with each other. Everything works seamlessly right out of the gate, and parents and students have an accurate and secure app for greater convenience while showcasing your school's forward-thinking, modern approach to technology.
5. On-Demand Transportation
Sometimes, students might need more flexible transportation options. For example, you might have one classroom where two cohorts of students are heading to a specific location at different times. Or you may have a student who spends their time in two households and occasionally needs to be picked up and dropped off at a different spot.
Instead of relying on expensive and unreliable private services like taxis, update your transit system to offer on-demand services like virtual bus stops. Not unlike ride-sharing apps such as Uber or Lyft, your students can indicate a unique transportation need on any given day, and dynamic routing and scheduling automatically evolve based on individual student needs.
6. Green Initiatives and Carbon Offsetting
Traditional buses account for nearly a quarter of all U.S. carbon emissions annually. Meanwhile, a study from Yale found that "students are increasingly concerned about the climate crisis and want sustainability to be more integrated into their education."
"That’s a missed opportunity," reports EducationWeek. "Schools are not only positioned to both promote climate change literacy and prepare students for the clean energy jobs of the future, but they’re also a significant source of greenhouse gases. In many cities, school districts are among the largest building owners, transportation managers, and employers, and they should be included in any efforts to mitigate climate change."
Schools have taken note of this disparity between what students (and society) want, and how they operate. Interest in eco-friendly green initiatives is soaring with schools now:
- Integrating electric buses and EVs
- Promoting walking and biking
- Supporting tree planting and green spaces
- Investing in carbon offset programs with reliable, trustworthy providers
This shift not only aligns with global environmental goals but also provides direct benefits to students, including improved air quality and healthier communities. Additionally, fostering an eco-conscious mindset among students through these initiatives encourages lifelong sustainable habits, positioning the next generation to be proactive custodians of the planet.
7. Integration with Multi-Modal Transportation
"Multi-modal" is simply when schools combine different forms of transportation into a student's journey to and from their destination, such as public transit (i.e., students take the subway to a specific location where your school picks them all up at) or bike sharing.
The flexible SHARE Mobility model does this automatically for you, mapping out and combining the most efficient methods of travel for each student based on their individual needs, preferences, and locations. The result is a truly flexible student transportation approach that fits your students' requirements, versus forcing them to fit a static, single-modal means of getting to where they need to go.
Accelerate Towards the Future with SHARE Mobility
The SHARE routing and student transportation platform covers the continental United States, giving your school affordable, convenient transportation that embraces the seven major trends shaping the future of school transportation. Ready to transform how your private or charter school gets your community to and from school, field trips, and sports games? Contact our team today for your free consultation.
