Philadelphia Continues To Subsidize Unsafe Streets for Kids
For the last four years, the Philadelphia School District has been paying parents to drive their children to school.
The Parent Flat Rate Program, as it’s called, arose in 2020 as an alleged response to the ongoing school bus driver shortage, as well as public health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents who provide proof of car ownership receive $300 a month, or $3,000 a year, to drive their children to school. Students who are driven one way but take the bus back are eligible for half the amount. Students under a certain age who commute to school by foot, bike or public transportation aren’t eligible for any subsidies, nor are their parents offered financial assistance.
Last year, Strong Towns reported on parents like Peter Kim who are impacted by shrinking bus services but are left out of the program that's supposed to compensate for that shrinkage. Like 35% of the Philadelphia population, Kim doesn’t own a car. He bikes alongside his son to school every morning. Unlike those who drive less than a mile and a half to school, there aren’t any kindred incentives in place for parents like Kim.
Since last year, his child has qualified for free transit fares, but nothing exists to subsidize the many younger students — nor their parents or caregivers — who may want to escort children to school via transit. In fact, one parent with a vehicle was offered the choice between $300/month to drive and a free transit pass for their child this year. “I’d rather take the $300 and put it towards a normal transit pass for my kid,” they half-joked. If they did so, they’d still have some change left over. Not to mention, while their child was offered a transit pass, the parent would still be liable to pay full price for their own.
Some even noticed that the program effectively disincentivizes carpooling. According to the guidelines, “one Vehicle Information Number for multiple households will not be accepted.”
Carpooling can be an efficient, convenient and cost-effective way to shuttle neighboring children to the same school. Caregivers are free to make arrangements that align with their lifestyles, and any costs incurred in transportation — which are minimal since the distance is less than 3 miles — can be negotiated between participating adults. The ideal carpool feels like a win-win for all involved. Instead, the school district is paying parents to individually congest city streets.
Woof they even managed to outlaw carpooling pic.twitter.com/eaWcsbmZNc
— Juxtaposition underminer (@Jeffinatorator) August 27, 2024
With a projected cost of nearly $40 million, the program’s renewal for the 2024-25 school year calls into question both the district’s long-term strategy for tackling school transportation and its short-term priorities when it comes to child safety.
According to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, traffic violence claimed the lives of 1,184 children in 2021. The same report estimated that 162,298 children were injured in traffic crashes in 2021, a 17% increase from 139,058 in 2020. On the first day of school this year, a 12-year-old Florida girl was taken to the hospital in critical condition after authorities say she was accidentally run over in a school drop-off line by her mother. As if waiting hours in school pickup and drop-off lines weren’t stressful enough, it’s now considered the most dangerous part of the school day for students.
Philadelphia doesn’t have to look to Florida for horror stories, though. Its own streets have seen plenty of blood this summer.
A four-year-old landed in the hospital after being struck on Cobbs Creek Parkway in August. For neighbors, it was a disaster waiting to happen, as they’ve long begged the city to slow down speeds on the strip. Two weeks earlier, on the other side of the city, a one-year-old succumbed to her injuries after being hit by a pickup truck, while two adults were critically injured. On June 30, Temple University student Visva Varathakumar didn’t make it across Broad Street where it intersects with Fairmount Avenue and Ridge Avenue. The three-way intersection is notorious for its confusing pedestrian signals, high speeds and multiple conflict points. Outside of a heartbreaking memorial on the corner, the intersection looks the same months later as it did the day it contributed to Varathakumar’s death.
The highest-profile fatality of the summer was probably that of Dr. Barbara Friedes. On July 17, an impatient Michael Vahey was driving twice the speed limit on Spruce Street — a one-way, tree-lined street in one of the most desirable parts of the city — when he swerved into the bike lane, killing Dr. Friedes who was commuting by bike at the time. As reckless and inexcusable as the driver’s behavior was, the city’s inaction showed just how culpable Philadelphia’s leaders are in her death and the death of everyone else this summer.
The idea that the School District of Philadelphia would spend tens of millions to intensify the city’s traffic violence epidemic is baffling to many of its residents, even those who stand to monetarily benefit from the program.
“They should at least offer parents who take transit something,” one parent told me. “It’s nice that they’re giving us money to deal with the driver shortage, but I wish we would use that money in the classroom instead,” another who works at Jefferson Hospital shared. One mother pointed out how some of the safety interventions in the immediate vicinity of her daughter’s South Philadelphia school haven’t been maintained in years. “The paint is worn and the plastic barriers that were run over months ago have never been replaced,” she said. “It used to be so nice!” Now, she feels as if everyone has given up on keeping the students safe.
By 3 p.m., the average Philadelphia school is enveloped by the hum of idling cars, some double-parked, others occupying the bike lane, all worsening the sight lines of other drivers and the countless children who are trying to cross the street. The scene is stressful and worth escaping. Everyone in the vicinity is visibly impatient.
According to a 2024 report on the state of school transportation, 78% of Philadelphia parents wish their school district offered more transportation options. 37% of parents who chauffeur their kids to class say that the task interferes with their ability to attend and perform their job, with as many as 45% claiming it has hindered their ability to secure employment. The monthly $300 is appreciated by many, but it doesn’t offset the absence of a convenient and confident transportation solution. That’s ultimately what parents want. Unfortunately, in renewing the Parent Flat Rate Program for another year, the school district has demonstrated that it’s not interested in the same.
There’s a better way to get kids to school. Join us for the Local-Motive session on October 3: “Getting Kids to School More Safely and Actively.”
Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.