Yellow Buses would save pupils
- Published: 15 June 2005
US-style yellow school buses should be introduced across England to improve pupil safety and ease traffic congestion, an education charity says.
The Sutton Trust says a service costing taxpayers £124m a year would reduce the 40 deaths and 900 serious injuries caused annually by the school run.
This would also allow poorer families more choice of where to send children and help tackle truancy, it adds.
In the US 54% of pupils are said to use such buses, compared with 6% in the UK.
Driver savings
The trust estimates that yellow buses - going from pick-up points near homes - would save primary school parents around £350m a year in time wasted and driving costs.
Society would benefit by £100m, through better punctuality at work, more efficient communication and a cleaner environment.
 The school run 'creates 2.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide' |
These churn out 2.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, adding to health problems such as asthma, it adds.
Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said: "Nearly 20% of traffic on the UK's roads during the morning rush hour is on the school run, and this is increasing.
"It leads directly to as many as 40 deaths and 900 serious injuries each year, and contributes more than two million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually to the atmosphere.
"And the lack of adequate school transport has a social cost too, because it restricts the school choices of families, particularly those in disadvantaged circumstances."
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 From the Hollywood sign to the Statue of Liberty, few images of America are more iconic   US yellow school buses |
The law states that children under the age of eight are entitled to free transport only if they live more than two miles from the nearest "suitable school". For older pupils, the distance is three miles.
Charging for yellow buses would have a "negative effect on usage", the trust's report claims.
It recommends that all children eligible for free school meals should be eligible for free transport.
In the US, yellow buses were "easily identifiable", while each child had an allocated seat.
They delivered directly from a pick-up point near home, helping to reduce truancy, the report said. Staggered start times cut rush-hour road congestion.
Yellow buses have been tested in some parts of the UK, including an £18.7m scheme in West Yorkshire.
There, one bus cut 25,000 car journeys a year in the Hebden Bridge area.
During the last parliament, ministers proposed a bill allowing local education authorities to charge for all school travel - strictly on people's ability to pay, "with an expectation that this would be no more than an average daily bus fare".
But this legislation was not passed before the general election.
