An Essay by A Student

Here in the Woodstock area, students generally get to school one of two ways: driving a car or riding in a school bus. Both offer benefits of motor vehicles in general. Car drivers benefit from independence and lack of rules. Bus riders benefit from economics, safety, socialization, and comfort. While both vehicles are similar in a few ways, they have significant differences as well, but the bus prevails.

School buses and cars are both motor vehicles. They enable you to get to your destination many times faster than if you were to walk or ride a bicycle. Each is a shelter from the outdoor elements (plus insects and other pests) and has climate control for greater comfort. In addition to protection from the weather, buses and cars protect their passengers from other people such as murderers, kidnappers, pickpockets, etc.

The similarities stop here, however. There are several benefits to driving a car that are not found in buses. For example, someone who drives a car gets to be alone, does not put their trust in another driver, can listen to their own music (at whatever volume they want to), and is not exposed to germs from other passengers. Additionally, students who drive to school can arrive at and leave school any time they want to. While the earliest school bus arrives at around 7:00 in the morning, those who drive can wait right up until the first bell at 7:35 to arrive. If a student has a study hall first or last block, they might be able to arrive late or leave early, accordingly. Drivers can put anything they want to in cars, such as large projects and sport bags, while objects carried on the bus must fit in the passenger’s lap or they become a safety hazard. This brings me to rules; school buses have many, many rules that must be obeyed, such as no eating, no drinking, no talking loudly, needing to sit in certain seats, and more, while there are almost no rules inside a car.

While riding in a car has many conveniences, riding in a school bus is much safer. There have been a total of 407,000 fatal traffic incidents in the United States since 1990 (onlinelawyersource.com). 0.38% of these fatalities involved school buses. Only 9% of this 0.38%, or 130, fatalities were of passengers inside of a bus. This translates to just seven fatalities of school bus passengers per year. While processing these statistics, also realize that, being “the biggest type of mass transit in the United States,” school buses carry passengers on twice as many trips as transit buses do (onlinelawyersource.com). On the other hand, in 2008, about 3,500 teenagers from age 15-19 were killed in motor vehicle accidents (cdc.gov); that’s 500 times the fatalities compared to bus passengers! Another 350,000 teens received emergency medical treatment due to motor vehicle accidents. Furthermore, school bus drivers are required to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) with passenger, school bus, and air brake endorsements (bls.gov). School buses are rigorously inspected at least once annually and put out of service if major problems are found.

School buses offer conveniences, too. Here at Woodstock Academy, the school bus loading zone is on the edge of the main part of campus, while the student parking lot is across campus, across the teacher’s parking lot, across two roads, and behind the church across the road. That’s a long distance to walk during inclement weather. Another bus convenience is socialization; you share a school bus with dozens of other students and the driver to talk to. Also, you can get to know neighbors while waiting at the bus stop. I personally find that sitting in a bus seat is more comfortable in the long run than sitting in a car seat because of its flat bottom and nearly vertical seatback.

Additionally, school buses are more economical. While a school bus only gets seven mpg compared to a car’s 20.8 mpg, there is a low per-person fuel usage on a school bus, which typically carries 54 students (americanschoolbuscouncil.com). Here in the rural Woodstock area, a student probably rides a bus for about 20 miles a day, maybe more. Multiply this by five days and you get 100 miles a week. That’s 14.2857 gallons the school bus uses in a week; divide this by 54 students and get 0.2646 gallons per student per week, compared to 4.8077 gallons of fuel use for someone driving to school alone – that means riding in a bus is over 18 times more fuel-efficient! Furthermore, the cost of running a school bus does not come down to the student. Our parents pay taxes for the bus’s fuel, maintenance, and driver whether we ride it or not, so why not take advantage of their hard-earned money? School buses also decrease the amount of motor vehicles on the road; one bus replaces 36 private vehicles (onlinelawyersource.com).

To conclude, riding in a school bus and driving yourself to school share the benefits of motor vehicles in general. Driving alone in a car gives you more privileges than riding in a bus, is more sanitary, and is not subject to as many rules. On the other hand, school buses are far safer, many times more economical, ideal for socialization, and comfortable. You choose how you get to school – I’m going to ride the bus!

Works Cited

“Bus Drivers.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 17 Dec. 2009. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .

“National School Bus Fuel Data.” American School Bus Council. 2008. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .

“School Bus Statistics.” Online Lawyer Source. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .

“Teen Drivers: Fact Sheet.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 3 Dec. 2009. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .