WATERLOO — The school buses of the future arrived two weeks ago.
On Aug. 10, the DeKalb Central school district began hauling students in the state’s only fleet that features seat belts and stop-arm camera in every buses and propane engines in all but a few.
“It feels good to know we have the best equipment we can on the road for the students and drivers,” said Renee Dawson, DeKalb Central’s transportation director. “Right now, we have everything on our buses that the industry believes to be the safest.”
DeKalb Central achieved that status the with bold move of buying 38 new buses for this school year. The district took advantage of a leasing program that will cost less than paying cash for its previous annual quota of four to five new buses per year.
The district went all-in for features it had begun adding gradually a few years ago.
Drivers resisted buses with seat belts at first, Dawson said.
“We’d talk them into it, and they’d come back and say, ‘I don’t ever want to drive a bus without seat belts ever again,’ because the behavior of students and the level of safety is so much greater,” she said.
“The seat compartment of a bus was already considered an extremely safe place for a student to be, but the seat belt adds to that level of safety,” Dawson added.
“They buckle up in their car, so it makes sense to them to buckle up in the bus,” she said.
Each bus includes 12 integrated booster seats — near the front — that fold out for preschool or kindergarten students. DeKalb Central previously used 300 removable booster seats that were expensive and needed frequent replacement.
Stop-arm cameras caught six violations on the first six days of school, Dawson said. They do so while reducing the burden on drivers to document license plates.
“The camera is recording all the time and knows when the stop arm’s out and when it’s been passed — when there’s been a violation,” Dawson said.
“I think as the community knows we have those, we will see a reduction in the number of stop-arm violations.”
The stop-arm cameras are part of an extensive video system with four high-resolution cameras inside the passenger compartment.
“We use it the most for student behavior, but if a parent calls and has a concern” with a bus driver the cameras provide evidence, Dawson said. “More often than not, it offers the opportunity to go back to that parent and say … here’s what really happened. It protects the drivers.”
The camera images are so sharp, “You can zoom in and see what color of gum they had,” in the days before riders wore masks, said Craig Long, lead bus technician for DeKalb Central.
Propane-fueled buses offer benefits for drivers, the bus maintenance staff and the taxpayers, Dawson said.
“We bought one in 2015, and we liked it so much that we’ve grown our fleet, ever since,” Dawson said.
“We’re excited to be at the forefront of that. More and more districts around us are buying them, now,” she added.
DeKalb Central expects to save $3,250 per bus every year on operating expenses.
Propane fuel is much less expensive, Dawson said. The buses don’t need diesel fuel additives, and oil changers are not as costly.
The propane buses do not need plug-in heaters in winter, and that does more than save on electricity.
“Even though they’re not plugged in, they heat up in seven minutes, even at really extreme temperatures,” to defrost windows and doors and keep passengers comfortable.
The propane buses also start easily in extremely cold temperatures with no fuel treatment.
Propane engines run more quietly than traditional engines.
“So, if you’re in the driver’s seat, you can hear your students, you can communicate with your students much easier. It’s a world of difference as far as the noise level inside the cabin,” Dawson said.
Thanks to cleaner exhaust, “We don’t have to worry about the particular matter that the kids are breathing in, the driver is breathing in, and that we’re putting out in our atmosphere in general,” Dawson added.
DeKalb Central still owns four gasoline-powered buses to use on long-range trips when a propane fuel source might be hard to find on the road.
As one more bonus, the new buses come with brighter lights inside and outside.
“You can see the buses a lot farther away with the LED lights,” Long said.
The move to upgrade the fleet with 38 new buses at once came from asking, “What if we looked at things with a different lens and purchased differently?” Dawson said. “How we purchased them is one of the most innovative things we have done.”
She added, “We’re thankful to have a board and administrative team that will look at new ways to do things and that will support what’s good for kids.”
"bus" - Google News
August 23, 2020 at 11:00AM
https://ift.tt/32hcNEj
DeKalb Central bus fleet full of firsts | Thestar - KPCnews.com
"bus" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2rp2JL3
https://ift.tt/3aT1Mvb
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "DeKalb Central bus fleet full of firsts | Thestar - KPCnews.com"
Post a Comment