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Parents Bring Bus Stop Concerns to District

Tribune Photo by Candace C. Mundy

CITRUS PARK -- Concerned parents met with John Franklin, general manager of transportation for Hillsborough County schools, to talk about the proposed school bus stop at Cain Road and Gunn Highway. Parents who are against the bus stop say the walk down Cain Road is too dangerous and they worry about their children waiting close to busy Gunn.

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 4, 2008

CITRUS PARK - The walk the school district has suggested children take down Cain Road to the bus stop is long, narrow and flanked by drainage ditches.

Neighbors in the Woodmont community off Gunn Highway are fighting the proposal, which is part of a broader plan the district has to reduce the number of bus stops countywide.

The Hillsborough County school district is starting the second year of sweeping transportation changes designed to make the busing system more efficient. Officials introduced new bus routes and bus stops last year to southern Hillsborough. This year, they are looking at south and central Tampa and northwestern Hillsborough.

John Franklin, general director of transportation, said the district has too many stops. The district wants eventually to have "universal" bus stops, where the bus goes to one location for elementary, middle, high school or school choice pickups. More than 90,000 children ride district buses daily.

Franklin met with parents at Sickles, Chamberlain and Farnell recently to give an overview of the plan and let them find out if their children's stops would change. Barbara Boler, who has a son in middle school, didn't expect any surprises but learned her neighborhood would lose its four elementary and three middle and high school stops for one new stop at the corner of Gunn Highway and Cain Road.

Her discovery wound up mobilizing neighbors who are afraid the new stop will endanger their children. They invited Franklin to come to see for himself, and he met with about a dozen parents in Woodmont Wednesday morning.

The problem? The intersection is busy, with a steady stream of traffic on Cain and speeders flying past on Gunn.

"People come screaming down here," resident Lisa Spirko said, "and it's not a nice place to walk."

Parents also pointed out the long walk from the houses in Woodmont to the proposed stop.

In addition to traffic the children might have to dodge on the walk, the parents worried about children standing so close to Gunn Highway. Ruth Jones said it makes her nervous to think about her high school-aged daughter waiting by a busy road with no houses nearby to run to for help in an emergency.

"In the neighborhood, we feel very secure," Jones said.

Students also will huddle under overhangs at neighbors houses on rainy days, Jones said, but they would have nowhere to go at the Gunn-Cain stop.

Other parents said children horse around at the bus stop, throwing footballs as they wait, which could be deadly by Gunn. Franklin said the district relies on parents to supervise children at the stops. The parents said an adult always waits with elementary children, but they may not be around for older students or afternoon drop offs.

Almost everyone is at work during the afternoon, said Tony Jones, Ruth's husband, and cannot leave to take their student home. Jessie Thorpe, a mother of four, said she had no choice but to work.

"We cannot afford for me to stop working to stand at bus stops," Thorpe said.

Parents are asking the district consider two bus stops in its community. One could serve children near the front of the subdivision at Cain and Sea Lavender Lane, and one could serve children in the middle of the community at Piney Lane Drive and Pine Bay Drive.

It would allow the district to scale back its Woodmont locations, Boler said, and still be efficient, because the bus at Sea Lavender would need to pass the other stop on a loop back to Gunn.

The state sets safety standards for bus stops, though the district can make exceptions. Busing is not usually provided within two miles of a school, and children can walk up to 1.5 miles to a stop. The transportation department looks at road hazards, railroad tracks and walking paths when making decisions. Sidewalks are not mandatory, Franklin said, as long as walkers have four feet of unfettered space next to the road.

Franklin said the crumbling culverts along the side of Cain Road concerned him. He told parents he had recommended a safety inspection and would contact parents with the results or any changes within a few days.

"We're trying to make our system more efficient," he said. "Of course we don't want to do that at the expense of safety."

The district is planning more public meetings with parents to review proposals before they are finalized later this summer. For information or to find out if a stop has changed, contact the transportation department at (813) 982-5500 or visit the district's Web site.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.

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