Several counties in the central-eastern state of Maryland are considering giving their yellow school buses shorter routes to save gas, widening the minimum pick-up radius from the standard one mile (1.
6 kilometers) for primary schoolchildren and two miles (3.2 kilometers) for high schoolers.
"Gas is very expensive, they want have something in place that would allow the superintendent to react, to make adjustments to those distances and bus routes, if necessary, if gas become even more expensive," said Montgomery County Public School spokesman Chris Cram.
The minimum pickup distances have remained unchanged for 12 years, and Cram refused to estimate by how much they would increase should authorities adopt the measure.
However, he was forthcoming about fuel consumption, saying the county had based its 2007/2008 school year fuel budget for its 1,274 school buses on an average price of 2.
74 dollars per gallon (3.78 liters), when it has already shot past 4.
0 dollars.
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