In recent years, urban designers and planners have increasingly moved away from car dependent city design. This shift has led to policy changes aimed at boosting the use of alternative transit options instead of cars. These changes include investments in public transportation, the creation of protected bike lanes, and land use reforms. This momentum has largely positive implications for health and design, given the drawbacks of car reliance, but this is being accompanied by an opposing trend in how we get students to school. A Washington Post headline phrased it pretty succinctly: “The school bus is disappearing. Welcome to the era of the school pickup line.”
National data highlights a significant change in student transportation trends. In 1970, around 42% of students walked or cycled to school, compared to 11% today. Most of these students have shifted to using personal vehicles. Bus ridership has largely remained stagnant since 1970, it has seen some changes in the last decade. Initially, the rise in private vehicle use mainly came from former walkers relocating to the suburban areas, but now it’s also drawing from students who previously relied on buses..
The school pickup lane has become increasingly noteworthy in Louisville. JCPS has a well known and well documented history of issues with its school bussing program within the past few years. This culminated in the cutting of bus service to most magnet and traditional schools within Jefferson County. We do not have exact numbers for student mode share in Louisville, but we do know car ridership is on the rise. The increase in car ridership has resulted in long lines and lots of complaints from parents.
The impact of increased private vehicle use extends far beyond inconvenience for parents and students. Student pickup lines typically take one of two forms: either a “built-in” line, where the school has a dedicated road on its property for pickups, or a makeshift setup at older schools in more historic neighborhoods that are without dedicated space and must use existing on street parking and travel lanes. Both configurations carry various implications for nearby land use, urban design, and even student health.
Congestion
Congestion is the most apparent issue that arises. This is less of a problem in newer schools that have some kind of built-in infrastructure, but schools that are more integrated into their neighborhood will likely face long lines on public roads. DuPont Manual High School and Noe Middle School in Old Louisville are good examples. In the morning, Manual’s car line will often extend onto 1st Street, blocking portions of the road. This isn’t too bad as 1st is not a major thoroughfare, but the car pickup line for Noe in the afternoon pours out onto Hill and even 2nd Street sometimes, resulting in major congestion along two of the biggest corridors in Old Louisville.
The extension of this traffic into neighborhoods can cause traffic to come to a complete stand still, especially if a lot of parents arrive before dismissal time. Residents from neighborhoods surrounding schools have already had issues with this. The congestion resulting from car rider lines may necessitate dedicated traffic management. Larger schools like Manual/Noe will have police and staff directing car traffic and pedestrians, which costs either the district/staff their time or money.
Land Use and Design
Since around the 1970’s, neighborhood design and land use has had to change to reflect the needs of students and parents who are arriving at school by car. This is why, as mentioned earlier, newer school campuses are usually larger and have some kind of built-in car pickup line. This can result in them often not being integrated into a city grid, and makes it significantly easier to build new schools in the suburbs than in the urban core. This is somewhat reflected in the pattern of where new schools have been built in Jefferson County.
Another contributor to the need for large school campuses is the amount of parking. This is not a big deal for elementary and middle schools usually, but high schools often need to provide parking for their older students who are beginning to drive. There is technically no parking ‘minimum’ for schools, but demand often requires large swaths of parking. This results in school campuses with a high amount of impervious surface area, increasing risks of flooding and exacerbating the urban heat island effect. As an example, Male Traditional High School, one of newer JCPS high schools, has around 25% of its campus covered by impervious surface area and only 11% covered by tree canopy. Manual/Noe have a similar amount of impervious area, although the campus is for two schools at least.
Pushing schools to the suburbs inherently incentivizes car travel to school, since the built environment is not conducive to public transportation or walking. This can create a sort of feedback loop where schools are harder to access by foot and bus, leading to issues with bus logistics and less students wanting to walk, which then leads to needing more campus land for private vehicles, schools becoming even harder to access by foot and bus, and so on. It is worth noting that JCPS plans on building new schools within the urban core beyond the recently completed Roosevelt-Perry Elementary, but issues presented by high amounts of car ridership could still be apparent in these new campuses if mode share does not change.
Pollution
The most well-known impact related to school pickup lines is the increase in air pollution. Hundreds of cars may be idling for 30+ minutes in a relatively small area, outputting a variety of air pollutants from their car into the air. Private vehicles in pickup lines have been shown to increase localized concentration of PM2.5. Increased exposure to air pollution in children can lead to worse academic performances, greater risk of obesity, and higher blood pressure. Any staff working to coordinate these pickup lines will also face health risks from air pollution exposure.
Beyond personal health, public health is affected as these lines are outputting air pollution city-wide. Air quality can suffer on a larger scale as a result. The typical car emits around 4 pounds of carbon while idling for an hour. There are around 97,000 students in JCPS, if even a fifth of those are car rider’s whose parents idle for a mere 10 minutes a day, then that's over 10,000 pounds of carbon being put into the air by their vehicles on a daily basis. The congestion resulting from student pickup lines can also increase emissions, as cars end up idling on the roadway waiting for traffic to move. Other harmful pollutants can also be emitted by idling cars, although carbon emissions are the most well studied.
When I walked around the Manual/Noe Campus, quite a few cars were idling for 10+ minutes. While the morning line moved fast, some parents and students would park on 1st Street and idle in their cars for some time before actually getting out. The afternoon line for Noe did not move as quickly, and cars ended up idling in the road. This would be both cars in the school pickup line and other cars on Hill Street that could not get around the line.
Shifting Rideshare Away From Cars
Unfortunately, there’s no simple solution to the cascading issues stemming from increased reliance on personal vehicles for school transportation. The shift away from walking and biking began in the 1960s and 1970s with bussing programs aimed at preventing segregation in schools. As a result, neighborhood schools—where most students could walk—aren't a feasible option without raising concerns about equity. Efforts to reduce traffic congestion, such as expanding campuses to keep cars off public roads or widening surrounding streets, can often have the unintended effect of encouraging more car use for student drop-offs.
However, the negative impacts of student reliance on car transportation are clear, and addressing them is essential. Systemic challenges, including segregation, play a part in this issue, but urban design and policy changes can help mitigate the problem. Surrounding schools with greenery can reduce localized air pollution, and if buses and cars share the same pickup area, electric buses can lower emissions in these zones. Creating multimodal corridors to schools or building new schools along these routes can make non-car access more feasible, even for students living farther away.
Reducing overreliance on personal vehicles isn’t just an urbanist preference—it's a health imperative. Car dependence presents a range of personal and public health risks, especially for children. The logistical challenges of the current transportation setup are well-known, but while infrastructure adjustments can theoretically be made, the health impacts of prolonged car reliance are often lasting and difficult to reverse if not addressed proactively.
.png){kind=logo}
