Schools are cutting bus service for children. Parents are turning to ride-hailing apps

2 years ago by MicroWave to c/news

The question of how to replace the traditional yellow bus has become an urgent problem for some, and a spark for innovation.

Summary

School districts across the U.S. are reducing bus services due to driver shortages and shifting transportation responsibilities to families, disproportionately affecting low-income households.

In Chicago, where only 17,000 of 325,000 students are eligible for buses, parents are turning to alternatives like ride-hailing apps.

Startups such as Piggyback Network and HopSkipDrive provide school transportation by connecting parents or contracting directly with districts, offering safety measures like real-time tracking and driver vetting.

Critics warn these solutions don’t fully address systemic inequities, as many families still struggle to afford or access reliable school transportation.

load all comments
SeekPie 41 points 2 years ago

America should really fix their public transport already.

Where I'm from, kids just take the regular bus, not a school specific one, because why should a school have their own bus system, when there's buses driving around anyways?

path: 0 14011310, hotness: undefined, score: 41, children: 9
modus 14 points 2 years ago

America should really fix their public transport already.

Say what's in it for the private corporations that ran it into the ground and America will listen. Won't you people stop for one second and think of the shareholders?!

path: 0 14011310 14014920, hotness: undefined, score: 14, children: 0
GissaMittJobb 9 points 2 years ago

Same goes for where I grew up/live - kids that live far away enough to not be able to walk/bike get free passes for public transit and take that to school.

path: 0 14011310 14012667, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 0
ThomasCrappersGhost 5 points 2 years ago

Time? Safety?

Here kids mostly walk.

path: 0 14011310 14015227, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
Sam_Bass 3 points 2 years ago

Out here in the ranch lands school buses are an absolute. Kids have to be up before dawn to get loaded up for a 5-10 mile trip one way. Parents could do it but they would have to drop the kids at the schools a couple hours before they open in order for those parents to make it to work on time

path: 0 14011310 14023784, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 5
SeekPie 1 point 2 years ago

But why should the bus be the school's responsibility when you can have regular buses that take kids to school while also moving everyone else to where they want to go?

path: 0 14011310 14023784 14028737, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 4
news
news

@lemmy.world

login for more options
38102
38700
9379

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

go to feed...