![]() The Our Money, Our Solutions, or OMOS, plan was the result. Improvements were broken into three categories: pedestrian, transit, and trail/bike. Pittsburghers for Public Transit helped coordinate meetings and organize the plan. Residents and community organizations from all MOC-affected neighborhoods-including Oakland and Squirrel Hill-met several times in 2019 to draft an alternative plan that would improve mobility in their neighborhoods and cost less than the projected $25 million Pittsburgh planned for the MOC. And many Hazelwood residents questioned proponents’ claims that the road was designed to improve their mobility.īut in the face of a campaign to paint concerned community members as anti-progress, simply saying no to the MOC wasn’t enough. The MOC would have permanently degraded the park and commandeered already-limited public spaces in Panther Hollow and The Run. They marched in a New Orleans-style brass band “funeral” parade along Junction Hollow Trail in Schenley Park, a popular car-free route for cyclists and part of the route the MOC would have taken between Oakland university campuses and the Hazelwood Green development site. We say they bleed yellow.On June 11, residents of Panther Hollow, Four Mile Run, and Hazelwood gathered with supporters in Panther Hollow to celebrate the demise of the Mon-Oakland Connector (MOC) shuttle road and uplift a new vision of community-centered development in its place. "There's a segment that just love doing what they do. In the meantime, Macysyn says, schools and private school-bus contractors will continue to try to recruit drivers who are civic minded and appreciate the part-time hours and spending time with children. Macysyn says that while measures such as distancing and opening windows seem to be pretty effective, "we certainly understand if folks have those concerns," especially if they have risk factors.Ĭhicago's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, is reportedly talking to ride-share companies like Lyft or Uber, or even paying parents to drive their own children to school. School buses are full of children, and children under 12 can't yet be vaccinated against COVID-19. A second factor in the shortage, Macysyn pointed out, is that in many places over the past year and a half, departments of motor vehicles were closed or had limited operations, so people couldn't get their road tests or update their qualifications.Ī third concern cited was safety. ( reports the median school bus driver earns $35,421 per year, which varies by region.)īrand-new bus drivers can't be hired on the spot like retail or fast-food workers they need commercial driver's licenses. Respondents to the survey were most likely to say that the pay they were able to offer was a major factor affecting their ability to recruit drivers. Many drivers were furloughed during the COVID-19 school closures in 2020, while others took the chance to retire. He says there are many reasons for the shortage. "In previous years, we've seen regionalized driver shortages, but nothing to the extent that we're seeing today." "This back-to-school period is nothing like the previous periods we've seen," he told NPR. ![]() The move left some 2,100 students, a little less than half of them in special education, without a way to get to school.Īnd in Pittsburgh, the public schools notified families that they are short almost 650 bus seats for the first day of school on Friday.Ĭurt Macysyn is executive director of the National School Transportation Association, which conducted the survey with two other trade associations. In Chicago this week, 70 bus drivers, about 10% of the workforce, abruptly quit over the district's new COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to WBEZ's Sarah Karp. In a new nationwide survey, half of student-transportation coordinators described their school bus driver shortages as either "severe" or "desperate." Now, in many places, there is a last-mile problem - quite literally. So far this fall, children heading back to school have faced many obstacles: battles over masks, vaccines, delta-variant surge fears and mental health needs.
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