Identifying the ongoing traffic issues faced by the students of various schools and considering Kolkata's traffic and ongoing demand for ownership of cars, IIT Kharagpur has identified qualitative aspects of school buses like safety, security, staff behaviour, punctuality, protection from pollution and comfort as priority areas of intervention to make shared services attractive to parents.
Professor of Civil Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, Bhargab Moitra, on Saturday, May 14, stated that the IIT research has highlighted the necessity and utilisation of shared modes as a method to minimise congestion on the narrow roads of the city, as stated in a report by PTI.
Further, Moitra shared, "The findings of the project justify a shift from the current fare-centric approach to an improvement of the overall service with adequate emphasis on relevant qualitative and quantitative attributes."
Briefing about when the initial attempt for research commenced, Moitra said that the research began about five years ago with the identification of a comprehensive list of attributes that affect the choice of the mode of transport to schools, views of the school authorities and vehicle operators' perspectives, as stated in a report by PTI.
An extensive survey was conducted to understand the perceptions of parents in the city, taking into account the needs of both sections — those with and without cars, he added.
Moitra said, "In Kolkata, nearly 12,000 parents were contacted for the survey and over 7,000 of them responded."
Conduction of the study
While the survey was conducted in two rounds, the first round found the priority attributes which require improvements and the second round captured the impact of improving priority attributes with regard to the choice of mode for transport to schools.
For all stakeholders involved in school trips, a standard operating procedure was developed as a part of the research.
Quoting the study, "Improvements of identified attributes are expected to increase the attractiveness of the shared modes for school trips and bring down the share of private cars by 5-7 per cent. Also with the improvements, the generalised cost to the non-car-owning parents is expected to reduce by 2-3 per cent indicating benefits. The overall reduction in the traffic volume during school opening and closing hours is expected to reduce vehicular emission and bring environmental benefits."
School children, their parents, school bus drivers and conductors, as well as the enforcement authority/school administration and police are the stakeholders when it comes to school trips suggested standard operating procedures (SOP), the report stated.
The SOP stated the police, school management and enforcement authorities should maintain police records of all the drivers and conductors involved in school transportation.
"Every driver should have at least five years of driving experience prior to taking up the assignment in schools, a record of all the vehicles involved in school transportation and enforce speed governors for school vehicles," SOP said.
Keep this in mind
While instructing everyone, the SOP asked parents of school children to keep a copy of the driver's license and registration number of the vehicle, check the bus tyre condition and strongly not encourage the use of worn off tyres and not allow children to travel without a seatbelt.
While on duty drivers were asked not to smoke, consume alcohol or tobacco and follow a fixed route following police instructions and were asked never to leave small children unattended while dropping them off at their homes.
Children were instructed to walk on designated footpaths, not cross roads without the assistance of elders and to return home if any of them misses the school vehicle.
