October is Children’s Health Month, and
the ability to give them clean air is our challenge and something attainable
with the implementation of both bussing and clean diesel programs.
Clean
air is uncontaminated with pollutants from emissions. Pollutants exacerbate
conditions such as asthma, already triggered by allergens which increase with
the change of seasons: fall foliage, indoor
dust, outdoor cold to dry, heated air - all asthma triggers.
One
would think bussing could solve this problem – I thought so, but emissions from
diesel fuel are far more damaging than those emitted from a standard car. While bussing mitigates other problems, it
does not eliminate the problem of air pollution.
Bussing
has never been an option in the Rye Neck School District, despite the
congestion along Boston Post Road at both drop off and pick up times. Staggered
patches of commuting cars could be much less stagnate with the implementation
of bussing within a school district.
Fewer cars equal a smoother flow of traffic.
For
Rye Neck, the qualifying standard to bus children is to live within a one
and-a-half mile radius. The school district officials claim that because all
children live in walking distance of the school, they can’t be bussed.
Perhaps
that justification was valid when dual incomes or rigorous schedules of
children were not as commonplace, when emissions weren’t seen as an imminent
threat to our planet and its inhabitants.
Of course, in order to address the emissions issue, you have to adopt a
clean diesel program, like one offered by the EPA that offers rebates to
participants. It’s the only way to make
it work the way it should work.
What
doesn’t work? This:
Instead
of implementing a clean diesel bussing plan, school programs stress awareness
of emission control. Hence, the “No
idling” signs at student pick-up spots.
During a “No Idling”-themed week, I found an e-mail like this in my
inbox:
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Yet,
still no bussing. No real solution.
“Take public transportation…” is not an
option. And a mile and a half is not a
realistic walking distance. Not everyone
lives a stone’s throw from school, so not everyone can walk. And, assuming that everyone could walk is an
inherent violation of laws considering the American with Disabilities Act and could,
under some circumstances, further require litigation to obtain bussing. And, a twenty degree and below winter morning
isn’t walking weather for anyone, which is why most parents that don’t live
around the corner from their school, drive!
It’s
noble to think it’s an option, but it is impossible not to idle. Once
you’ve been in a pick up line, you realize that cars move too slowly to keep
moving forward and too quickly to turn the engine off at every stop.
“No
idling” has good intentions, but it’s merely a prophylactic for a real
solution.
Furthermore,
taking children to and from school is an acute source of stress for
parents: parents who need to work are
hard-pressed to find childcare at 8 am and 3 pm every day. For some, that’s all that is needed to
fulfill work obligations. For others,
that means not having to secure childcare when one child is sick and paying out
large sums of money to rig an otherwise logistical mess.
When
researching the topic, I don’t come up with much. There are no estimated costs publicly available that detail what would
be required to implement a bussing program, and during environmental or health
week, no one mentioned putting a clean diesel bussing program in place. Not once.
In
the Glenville School District of Greenwich where I have since relocated, a bus
arrives twice a day at my block’s end. For
me, that’s an extra hour and a half of work I get done from my home office, and
an regular play date among the kids on the bus – kids that live next door to
each other, develop a bond, and then play with each other - old-fashioned,
maybe, but so much easier. It’s a
counter-intuitive argument to think that there are more opportunities for
spontaneous activity and exercise because of bussing. My kids live in a bussing district and thus, spend
more time playing and running from house-to-house with their friends.
In Greenwich, busses are contracted
out by the district to Student Transportation of America (STA) which abides by
a clean diesel. Maribel Mantia, Terminal
Manager of STA, explained to me that the buses follow clean diesel guidelines
and welcomed information on the rebate program offered by the EPA. He also spoke about the district-wide five-minute
idling limit.
Apart
from environmental and health impact, think about the friendships that could be
saved without the conflict of that illegal left turn into the parking lot, or
that car that cut in line because someone either had to or didn’t know
better. By accident or not, minor errors
create another “brick in the wall,” to effective human relationships. I’d like everyone to have one less issue over
which to fight. I need to like my “mom”
friends. I don’t want to argue with
them.
There
are still parents who opt to drive and that’s fine. But if clean bussing is offered, we should
set a good example for our kids. When
mine ask why bussing is better, I tell them that if I can focus on work when
they’re at school, I do better at giving them my undivided attention when
they’re not. I tell them that public
transportation keeps our planet safe for the future by helping to keep the air
clean by reducing emissions. It’s
two-fold: bussing and the EPA’s clean
diesel program:
http://www2.epa.gov/cleandiesel
The
October 11th, Sunday Review of The New York Times ran an article on
taking care of our planet and teaching our children how to do so. It states, “Children today stand to
inherit a climate severely changed by the actions of previous generations. They
need to understand how those changes came about, how to mitigate them and how
to prevent more damage to the planet. “
When
I told my daughter that I finally wrote this piece on the topic, she said, “Oh…
finally.” Under her advice, I wrote it
after living two months in a bussing district.
I
hope there are a few more “Oh, finallys” in my future.
Children
live what they learn. .
My daughter also knows
that I miss that time with them but I don’t miss the chaos. The implementation of clean diesel bussing is
the right thing to do.
For more information on emissions, go
to:
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