Now available on the Download Files page - the full report.

District 200 transportation data show that overall, Hubble students’ bus rides aren’t significantly longer than bus trips for students at schools such as Bower, Monroe or Washington.  For Warrenville students who have longer trips, moving Hubble may not solve the problem, but splitting long bus routes could provide immediate relief.  Specifically:

(1)                Some students traveling to school within Warrenville – including kindergarteners – travel as long as 55 minutes; moving Hubble won’t shorten these travel times.

(2)                Hubble students don’t have significantly longer travel times when compared with other schools; the average maximum travel time by bus to Hubble Middle School is just three minutes longer than travel time to Monroe Middle School, and only three minutes longer than the average travel time for elementary students who travel by bus within Warrenville to Bower Elementary.  In other words, if every Hubble student boarded at the first stop and rode the entire length of the route, his or her bus ride to school would average just under 30 minutes (compared with just over 27 minutes for Monroe students and just under 27 minutes for Bower Elementary students).  In reality, all students don’t ride the entire route, so their actual travel times are shorter than the times shown.

(3)                “Long” bus routes (over 35 minutes) average many more stops than other routes.  Splitting long routes can help save time for students today, whether or not a new school is built in the future.

(4)                Passenger counts do not place any Hubble route among the District’s 20 “most crowded” routes.

School	Average Maximum Travel Time (Morning) In Minutes
HUBBLE	29.98
Washington Elementary	28.72
Monroe	27.14
Bower Elementary	26.83
Franklin	25.68
Edison	24.76
Johnson Elementary	23.77

We found a strong correlation between long travel times and number of stops, indicating that splitting longer routes could achieve immediate time savings for students today, whether or not a new school is built.  We also found that average maximum travel times to Bower Elementary School are almost 27 minutes, indicating that distances within Warrenville may contribute to total travel times.

We believe these results, compiled from official District 200 records by the EDUCATE 200 Foundation as part of our recent study described in this report, show that (i) average bus travel times for Hubble students are not significantly longer than for students who travel by bus to the District’s other middle schools or, for that matter, students who bus to elementary schools within Warrenville, (ii) no Hubble routes are among the most crowded, and (iii) the District can take immediate action to shorten travel times whether or not it builds a new school.  While a three-minute difference does not, in our view, justify relocating an entire school, we believe that changes can be made to reduce the travel times for students at the higher end of the average.  We encourage those who have expressed concern about travel times to take a look at these numbers, and to join us in urging District 200 to take immediate action to rationalize its bus routes to reduce travel times for the most distantly located students.  This is the only option that can provide immediate time savings today, not years down the road.

Update:  In December, District 200 provided updated bus route data for both elementary/middle school and high school routes.  These are available, in full in the exact form received, on the Download Files page.  The Three Minute Makeover study, completed earlier this fall, does not include these revised data, but we will review and update as time permits.

Page last updated December 8, 2006.