UPDATE (7:42 PM): Routes have already changed. Route 3093, while still long, has different schools. Other long routes have appeared.
Despite platitude-filled community meetings, a good sign of dropping a stupid idea, and vague promises, Dallas Independent School District declined to fix its long, bizarre bus routes.
For example, this is an actual bus route for 2019-2020 for Sudie Williams TAG:
Google Maps says this seven-school, 24-mile route (!) takes 1 hr 10 minutes. DISD thinks it will only be 53 or 54 minutes. Hmm, what’s DISD’s logic? Slower vehicle (bus) + pause for several minutes at each school (load/unload) = 16-17 minutes faster drive time? Just like last year, a hefty dose of magical thinking!
This isn’t the only one. Many routes are long and complicated.
With half of his brain tied behind his back, one of my fans created a 10% faster route simply by reorienting the stops. And by removing one stop, he made a 30% faster route.
DISD Transportation repeatedly promised to fix this. They declined to. We’re seeing more of the same.
Superintendent Hinojosa, your “drastic changes” failed to deliver. Time for more firings.
(In case DISD makes further changes, here’s my own archival copy of the “special programs” bus-routing spreadsheet that shows the state of the routes when I saw them: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/103Y2aey36uDkAszoax7x8ZKBSMYsWWknrlKVrgmucwI/edit?usp=sharing.)
Looks like they need more buses.
They have plenty of buses. We are purchasing 600 buses over the next 10 years: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Voters-Approve-Dallas-ISD-School-Bond-499919621.html
Well, gee, these are the same people who one year FORGOT to arrange the next year’s health insurance for 10,000 employees. And you expect them to set up efficient school bus routes?