BARRHEAD/WESTLOCK — Despite the measures taken by Pembina Hills to address the issue, such as installing extended arm stop signs and exterior video cameras on buses, "fly-bys" continue to be a headache within the school division.
That bit of unfortunate news was included in the 2023-2024 Transportation Assurance Report, which was presented by director of transportation Shantelle Haitel to the Pembina Hills trustees at their April 17 meeting in Barrhead.
When a bus is stopped and its door is open to either pick up or let students off, its overhead alternating red lights will be activated, and motorists approaching from either direction must come to a complete stop either ahead of or behind the bus. Fly-bys are incidents where other motorists ignore this legal requirement and instead drive by, potentially putting children in danger.
Haitel said their drivers have reported 47 such incidents from November 2023 to March 2024, adding, “It’s a little bit more than where we were at last year at this time."
That said, there is good news on this front: Haitel said they have been getting a great response from the RCMP and the new County of Barrhead peace officer.
As well, their exterior cameras are working "incredibly well" and that footage led to a conviction a couple weeks ago. Haitel said the bus driver involved in that incident had gone to court ready to testify, but they didn't get a chance to as the motorist pleaded guilty.
In another instance, there was a man who insisted he could not have passed a stopped school bus despite the exterior cameras recording his vehicle doing so and his licence plate being taken down. Haitel said they invited the man down to the regional office to view the footage and "he could not believe his eyes."
Because of this success, Haitel reported they will be installing another 25 exterior cameras on buses over the summer.
As noted above, the division has also installed extended stop arms on some buses along problematic routes. Haitel said those do seem to be reducing the number of fly-bys, but the stop arms do come with issues, including a hefty price tag and some difficulty operating in temperatures below -20 C.
Luckily, the company that built the extended stop arms figured out a fix for the cold problem, so they were able to retrofit the stop arms, Haitel indicated.
But even with those extended stop arms, Haitel said there are still people pulling around stopped school buses.
“You’re almost going into the ditch to get around a flashing stop sign. How is this possible? But people do try it," she said.
Board chair Judy Lefebvre asked Haitel if fly-bys were occurring within town limits, out on rural roads, or a mix of both. Haitel indicated these incidents happen more in the countryside, but there is at least one in-town route that is problematic.
Driver recruitment
The transportation assurance report also touched on other aspects of bussing within Pembina Hills, including one other area that has been a source of frustration for the division: driver recruitment.
On that front, Haitel actually had some good news, noting that they have had an influx of applicants signing up to be drivers.
"We had so many applicants that we actually had to close our ad down on the Westlock side ... because we don't have the capacity right now to train everybody," she said. "That's a great problem to have."
Haitel indicated they have trained 11 new drivers this year so far and 10 more are in training.
“I have no idea (what is causing this turnaround). I’m just thankful for it," she said.
Trustee David Truckey asked Haitel if these were mostly local people or newcomers to the area. Haitel said it was a mix of both, adding that they had some locals who had been meaning to sign up in the past and finally got around to it.
Truckey then pointed out he had referred some newcomers in Haitel's direction, while trustee Sherry Allen said this issue is discussed frequently at her local school council.
Surprisingly, Haitel said many new drivers are trending younger, as opposed to the usual status quo of retired people becoming bus drivers.
“Back in the day, it used to be that farmers, once they got a little bit older, they decided that they should be bus drivers as well, and it just worked with their schedule," she said.
“Now we’re seeing a lot more young parents ... because they can work now, make a little extra cash and bring their kids with them."
It should be noted that this uptick in driver recruitment is not universal across the division, as Haitel said they are still having issues recruiting bus drivers for the Fort Assiniboine area.
They have also seen an unusually high number of drivers lost to severe illnesses, noting that there was one case of a driver starting with the department and passing away four months later.
“It’s just taken a toll on our department," she said, noting she has had to be more aware of her team's mental and emotional health as a result.
Bus statistics
Another topic of interest within the report was a section on the division's various transportation statistics, such as the current ridership numbers, average route times and average route distances.
Haitel said there are 2,630 students registered to ride Pembina Hills' buses on a daily basis, which is up slightly from the 2022-2023 ridership of 2,487 students.
The average distance between transported student residences and their school of attendance is 16.98 kilometres, which is a little down from the 2022-2023 average distance of 17.9 kilometres.
An estimated 17.2 per cent of students have to ride the bus one way for more than one hour, which is a decrease from the 2022-2023 total of 19.7 per cent.
Finally, the average one-way ride time is 38 minutes, which is a couple minutes lower than the 2022-2023 total of 41 minutes.
Some 13 per cent of students are being transported to their schools from their residences less than 2.4 kilometres away. This was up from eight per cent in 2022-2023 in large because the province changed the distance that students must be from their schools in order to receive transportation funding.
Another 18 per cent of transported students live between 18 to 25.9 kilometres from their school, 14 per cent live between 26 to 37.9 kilometres from their school and eight per cent live more than 38 kilometres away.
“It just goes to show that we are, of course, a very rural board and our buses have to travel quite a distance to get to school," Haitel said.
Fort Assiniboine School students have the longest average route duration in minutes at a total of 79, while Dunstable School and Neerlandia Public Christian School are tied for the shortest average route duration at 57 minutes each.
