Busing Issues

The Reporter recently ran a story of major busing concerns with High School students.  The fact is, there are problems at all school levels.  The following is a copy of an email sent to our campaign from a frustrated and concerned parent.  An attempt was made by telephone and email, with no response from the district.

"Marianne Cleary,

I had left you a voicemail last week, but I have not yet heard back from you.  My wife and I would like to have a Penndale bus stop added to Church Road in North Wales.  We live on Church Rd., near Kneedler Rd.  The closest current bus stop is located on Church Rd, at the Pennbrooke Apts across from Becker Rd.  The location of the current stop seems inappropriate for the location of our house.

The current stop requires our daughter,  (12), to deal with too many unsafe options.  If she crosses Church Rd at Kneedler, she is crossing a busy road at rush hour with no cross walk, or crossing guard.  When she gets to the other side, she lands on private property with no sidewalk.  If she walks down our side of Church Rd, then crosses at Becker, she is walking the entire distance through residential yards, with no sidewalks.  She then has to cross Church Rd at an even less safe location.  If she walks down Kneedler and then down Becker, she is walking about twice as far, and again, she will have residential properties, with no sidewalks, a lot of on street parking and fast cut through traffic.

I don’t know how she is expected to make this walk twice a day, especially during, rain, snow, ice, etc.  Church Rd also has multiple SEPTA bus stops between our house and the current NP bus stop.  These SEPTA stops are usually occupied by people who I feel are unsafe.  Church Rd also gets a lot of adult foot traffic due to the SEPTA train station nearby.  Since we are on the corner of our neighborhood, we are not familiar with most of the families on Becker Rd.  We are completely unfamiliar with the people who live in the Pennbrooke Apts.  As far as I know, she is the only student from Kneedler/Becker that is attending Penndale.  She has no other student to walk with in a safer pair.  I, my wife and my daughter are not comfortable with the distance she has to walk, the conditions of the walk and the unfamiliar surroundings. 
Please add a stop on Church Rd, at Kneedler Rd, so she can wait on the corner of Church and Kneedler, and safely cross the street with the help of the school bus STOP sign.

I look forward to hearing from you."