Bus Stop Locations and Routing Criteria
The Anoka-Hennepin School District serves over 8000 bus stop locations within our 13 communities which are spread over 172 square miles. Bus stops and routes are designed with consideration of safety, efficiency, and shortest overall ride times.
How are bus stops determined?
Routes are specifically designed where buses will travel main roads through neighborhoods, and students are picked up and dropped off at central locations. Bus stops are located at corners or intersections whenever possible and are usually central to where area students live. Some house stops are made on very busy roads or midway along very long streets. Bus stops are typically planned closer to homes of elementary students as older students are expected to be able to safely walk farther to their bus stops. Maximum walk-to-stop distances established in district policy are as follows:
School Age Group |
Walk-to-Stop Distance |
PreK & Elementary students |
0.25 miles |
Middle school students |
0.35 miles |
High school students |
0.45 miles |
Why are bus stops usually established at corners or intersections?
Safety:
- Students are generally taught to cross the street at corners rather than in the middle of the road.
- Traffic controls, such as stoplights or signs are located at corners. This tends to slow motorists at corners, and they become more cautious as they approach intersections. The motoring public generally expects school buses to stop at corners rather than individual houses. Impatient motorists are also less likely to pass buses at corners than along a neighborhood street. Cars passing school buses create the greatest risk to students who are getting on or off the bus.
- In the winter, salting and sanding is usually done at corners, providing safer stopping of buses and other vehicles.
- Buses use their eight-way light system and stop arm when picking up and dropping off students. Corner stops allow the most ample time for the driver to properly activate the yellow warning lights before getting to the stop.
- Bus drivers, especially substitutes, can best see corner stops, much more easily than individual house numbers, so they can keep their focus on safe driving. House numbers are often in a variety of places on houses and are not easily visible from the street, especially in bad weather and before dawn or after dusk.
Efficiency:
- Ride times for students are shorter if buses are kept on main roads and not sent down every street.
- Route changes for new students can be more easily accommodated and are much less disruptive to others when stops are at corners.
- Minimizing the number of stops also reduces costs for fuel, as well as wear and tear on the buses.
Other bus stop considerations:
Combinations of the following criteria and questions are also considered when establishing bus stop locations:
- Length of walking distance to the stop.
- Time of day the students are at the stop.
- Volume of traffic on the road.
- Is there rush hour traffic?
- Is the stop on a residential street or a main arterial road?
- If the street is busy, are there sidewalks to walk on?
- Does the child have to cross a busy street to get to the stop?
- What is the age of the student?
- Does the route require that the bus do a turn-around at the stop location?
Criteria not considered for adding a stop or making a house stop:
- It is not possible to provide bus stops that are within sight of all students’ homes or daycares unless house stops were made for all students. Most families that live just one house from the corner often cannot see the corner bus stop without coming out of the house. We encourage parents to be out at bus stops to promote proper pedestrian and bus stop safety and behavior.
- A house stop would not necessarily be made only because the bus goes past a student's house. Many routes travel past student's houses on the way to or from school. The higher frequency of stops would only make routes longer, but more importantly makes the motoring public impatient, causing drivers to drive around the bus, creating a much greater safety concern versus the slightly longer distance a student must walk to the bus stop.
- Likewise, a house stop would not necessarily be made because there is only one student at the stop. Other students may be assigned to the stop, but ride infrequently. Also, stops are made at corners for efficiency and to accommodate other students who may move into the neighborhood.
- Bus stops are typically not made within a cul-de-sac. A school bus requires 115 feet to safely turn around and cul-de-sacs usually do not have enough room for safe access. This is particularly true in the winter, or on trash days, and simply when other vehicles are parked in the cul-de-sac. Going into a cul-de-sac forces the bus to have to back up, and this is an extremely dangerous maneuver we want to avoid.
- Weather conditions are also not part of the criteria for a bus stop change.
Other routing considerations:
The order of student pick-ups and drop-offs is designed to be the most efficient and within the shortest possible time. Students who are first on in the morning will not necessarily be the first off in the afternoon, especially if it is a less efficient way to run the route. In general, the farther students live from school, the longer their bus ride will be. The length of the bus ride is determined by both the distance from school and the number of stops made along the way. It takes a considerable amount of time to make numerous stops for 50-70 students. For this reason, we are making every attempt to minimize the number of bus stops and to keep them at corners.