Bus rides long for some
students

By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

• While some routes are lengthy, rides in county and city buses aren’t the longest in state.

There are some long bus routes in Columbus County, but they aren’t the worst in the state.

According to a report released Friday by the School Forum of North Carolina, there are some students in the state who spend as long as three hours on a bus each day – one way. The report, using statistics supplied by each school system, listed the number of students in each school system and the number of buses used.

The report included the average length of a one-way bus ride and the length of the longest route, again, one way.

The average bus ride in Coumbus County takes 33 minutes one way. The longest bus route in the county takes 162 minutes one way. Students on that bus spend five hours per day or 25 hours each week traveling to and from school.

The Whiteville City School’s data is included in the county’s.

Katrina Batten, who maintains the data for the Columbus County and Whiteville City buses, said the 162-minute route is either an exceptional children’s bus or a bus for the Southeastern Early College (SEC).

Batten said the system tries to hold one-way bus rides to two hours or less.

There are only eight exceptional children’s buses to cover the entire city and county. Batten said thse buses typically have longer routes.

And there are only three buses to cover the county for its SEC, the early college high school.

Geogaphy plays a big role. Columbus County is one of the largest counties landwise in the state.

There is a lot more ground to cover between stops. A student who lives on the county line or on the edge of a school district is going to have a longer ride.

The Columbus County and Whiteville City schools use 157 active buses to transport 5,074 students in the
county and 1,461 in the city.

Regionally, Columbus County had the single longest bus route. However, two counties – Brunswick and Bladen – had longer average rides.

The students in Currituck County, scattered along the Outer Banks, fared the worst with an average ride of 55 minutes and a single ride that is 209 minutes long or three and one-half hours. That’s seven hours per day or 35 hours per week.

Wake County buses 70,000 students with 838 students. The average bus ride is 19 minutes. The longest bus ride is 132 minutes.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools buses 4,574 students on 57 buses. The average bus ride is 14 minutes. The longest bus ride is 58 minutes.