ATLANTA — Atlanta Public Schools bus drivers will conduct a practice run on all of the district's bus routes on Wednesday, July 29.

The practice run, which will take place from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., is part of the district’s preparation for the first day of school, which will be the following Wednesday, Aug. 5.

Atlanta Public Schools officials said that the purpose of the practice run is for school bus drivers to become familiar with their routes, to improve accuracy of timing during current traffic patterns, and to estimate the pickup and drop-off schedules for students.

The district advised motorists to be aware that school bus drivers will run their routes in real time, making stops, dropping bus arms and opening doors across Atlanta during morning and afternoon rush hours.

In other news, Atlanta Public Schools is launching stop-arm cameras on its buses this school year. The project, announced earlier this year, is a partnership with the Atlanta Police Department and American Traffic Solutions.

The district will start the new school year with American Traffic Solutions’ CrossingGuard technology on school bus routes that have been identified as having a high number of stop-arm violations.

“Ensuring that motorists follow the law when students are being loaded and unloaded from our school buses is a vital safety concern,” said John Franklin, Atlanta Public Schools’ executive director of transportation. “With the implementation of these cameras, instances of motorists passing school buses while the stop arm is out and the red lights are flashing are expected to decrease.”

Atlanta Public Schools buses transport 24,000 students to and from school, traveling nearly 22,000 miles daily.

About the author
Thomas McMahon

Thomas McMahon

Executive Editor

Thomas had covered the pupil transportation industry with School Bus Fleet since 2002. When he's not writing articles about yellow buses, he enjoys running long distances and making a joyful noise with his guitar.

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