Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Jason Glasser and Annie Kao make their way into the ALTRANS bus at Redwood Middle School.

City helps ALTRANS get kids to school

Redwood School students take city van to school

By Michelle Alaimo

A new shuttle program by Alternative Transportation Solutions (ALTRANS) is now underway at Redwood Middle School, thanks to the help of the city of Saratoga.

ALTRANS began using the city's compressed natural gas (CNG) van on Sept. 8 for morning and afternoon shuttle runs.

But the loan of the CNG van to ALTRANS is temporary--lasting until Nov. 25. Two new CNG vans are on order, but the company will not receive them until December.

"This will benefit the city, schools, and relieve traffic congestion," Saratoga Mayor Don Wolfe said.

ALTRANS is responsible for insurance costs on the city van, and cannot drive the vehicle more than 25 miles per day, according to the agreement with the city.

The program, based out of West Valley College, currently has a 12-passenger van. The shuttle program is an extension of a K-12 trip-reduction program at schools throughout Saratoga. ALTRANS, funded by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's Transportation Funds for Clean Air, works with parents and schools to reduce the number of cars arriving at schools.

"Our goal last year was to reduce traffic by 10 percent. We reduced it by 32 percent," said Jill Thompson, ALTRANS K-12 trip-reduction manager.

One of the ways the organization reduces traffic to schools is by helping students and parents find alternative methods of getting children to school, including carpooling, bicycling and the shuttle program.

Surveys were given last year to parents asking what kind of interest there was in alternative methods of transportation, Thompson said, adding that the response rate was about 35 percent, which she said is excellent. This year, Thompson said the Saratoga Union School District has allowed ALTRANS to place a question on student's emergency cards, which are returned to the district, asking parents if they are interested in carpooling. Thompson said those parents who answer yes are then contacted by ALTRANS and given carpool contacts of other parents in their area.

The shuttle program was supposed to include additional schools this year, but plans to start the shuttle program at Blue Hills Elementary and Argonaut Elementary have been put on temporary hold, said ALTRANS shuttle coordinator Greg Van Orsdel.

"A lot of parents are very reluctant to let their small children go on a bus, van or shuttle," Van Orsdel said. He added that he didn't blame parents for thinking this way but hopes to have interest for the shuttle program at schools, other than Redwood, increase in the coming months.

In the meantime, Van Orsdel said, the middle school students are using the shuttle program. Students are picked up from their homes and taken to Redwood in the morning and are taken back home in the afternoon. It takes approximately 30 minutes for all 18 students to be picked up and brought to school, Van Orsdel said.

He said he thinks the reason the shuttle program is well received at Redwood is because the children are older, and most have keys to let themselves in their homes. The cost to parents for the shuttle program is $4.50 a day and they are billed on a monthly basis for days their children used the service, Van Orsdel said.

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