Next school year, NYC parents will be able to track their child’s school bus like you can do with Uber right now.
The New York City Council unanimously passed legislation that would require all buses have a GPS tracking system and a two-way radio. It will also add more reporting requirements for bus drivers. All that is left is for Mayor Bill de Blasio to sign on the bill.
This comes after the sudden snowstorm in November left buses stranded in traffic for hours, and parents couldn’t reach their kids.
The council is now mandating that next school year buses have real time GPS tracking, and two way radio systems. The Office of Pupil Transportation will also be required to do practice runs on bus routes before the school year starts, and produce reports tracking complaints and quality of service.
The legislation was named STOP, which stands for the Student Transportation Oversight Package. Along with the installation of two-way radio devices and GPS systems on school buses, the city will now be mandated to report bus times, delays and complaints.
All 10,000 city school buses are now required to install these systems by September. As of now, 6,000 are already equipped with this technology.
Councilman Ben Kallos first introduced legislation back in 2014 to get GPS tracking installed on every school bus.
I’m proud to have co-sponsored Councilman @BenKallos’ common-sense bill, along with 20 of our colleagues, to help bring some peace of mind to New York City’s parents.
NEW LAW: All NYC School Buses to Have GPS, Allowing Parents to Track Location https://t.co/E0Df0hSand via @ywn
— Kalman Yeger (@KalmanYeger) January 10, 2019
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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8 Responses
In addition to the GPS law they should also pass a law that every bus must have a dashcam on the inside facing the road and transmit to NYPD all the red lights that the bus drivers pass endangering the children on the bus. And cameras on the outside for those that pass the bus with a flashing red light. Just as important as the GPS
Includes private yeshiva buses too?
What a great idea! Finally .
Finally, a bill i can propose should be international law 🙂
How will the paents be able to speak with their children? I’m missing something somehow.
I suppose that one would need a smartphone app (and a smartphone) to track the bus so I guess it wouldn’t be of use to the neo-Luddite Chareidi community
Comes in clutch if your kid misses the bus
Politicians should be required to have a GPS as well so voters can track their locations.