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The many costs of operating school buses in America

Author

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  • Ellegood, William A.
  • Riley, Jason M.
  • Berg, M. Douglas

Abstract

The research seeks to quantify the marginal cost impact of transportation cost drivers on the total operating cost of Texas's public schools and how these costs differ between district type and environment setting. The analysis tests the validity of often cited research findings examining the widely used School Bus Routing Problem (SBRP). We present results from fixed effects regressions with panel data for the total transportation operating cost. Finding the marginal cost of an additional student is 2.5 times greater for a rural district than for an urban district. Additionally, we compare mean average values of school bus transportation metrics between rural, town, suburban, and city districts. Concluding, on average, school bus transportation costs for Rural districts are 40% more per student than a City or Suburban district. The dataset includes eleven years of transportation operating costs from 998 Texas public school districts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellegood, William A. & Riley, Jason M. & Berg, M. Douglas, 2024. "The many costs of operating school buses in America," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:103:y:2024:i:c:s0739885923001415
    DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2023.101401
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public schools; School bus; Fixed effects linear regression; Rural; Urban; Transportation operating costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other
    • R49 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Other
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General

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