The Cheapest Bus Route Is the One You Don’t Need

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The cheapest bus route is the one you don’t need.

We’ve spent years studying and working on how kids get to and from school, and the latest national numbers stopped me cold.

81% of school administrators say bus driver shortages are a problem. 26% have already cut or shortened routes. 83% say educators are stepping away from their core responsibilities to cover transportation, according to the 2025 State of School Transportation survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in partnership with HopSkipDrive.

Routing is not enough

Most districts answer with better routing. That helps. But routing only makes the buses you have more efficient. It doesn’t reduce how many students need a seat.

Here’s what I keep coming back to: 63% of parents in the same survey say they drive their kids to school. Those cars clog drop-off lines, and the district has no visibility into any of it.

That’s not a problem. That’s untapped capacity.

Neighbor carpools. Walking groups. Bike buses. Transit pools for older students. Every student who joins one frees a bus seat. Enough freed seats means shorter rides, fewer stops, and a real backup plan when a driver calls out.

Launch is everything

I’ll be honest about the hard part. In one state pilot, only about 3% of families signed up when they were simply invited to download an app. The technology isn’t what’s missing.

Launch is everything: Superintendent and Cabinet buy-in, Principal buy-in, PTA champions, and matching families before day one.

That’s why we built Go Together the way we did. It’s all the other things we do to increase adoption and usage.

Buses aren’t going anywhere. They just shouldn’t be the only lane.

Superintendents and transportation leaders: what’s working for you right now?

We’ll keep the conversation going. See how Go Together helps districts build a multimodal SchoolPool program, explore solutions for school districts, or request a demo.

Further reading:

#StudentTransportation #K12 #SafeRoutesToSchool

Kimberly Y. Moore

Kimberly Y. Moore is the CEO and Co-Founder of Go Together, Inc., a mission-driven company working at the intersection of mobility, education, equity, and technology. Go Together builds the technology that helps K-12 students get to school when the bus isn't an option, coordinating verified carpools, walk pools, and bike pools through a single platform used by schools and districts across the country. Kimberly founded the company after seeing firsthand how transportation barriers keep motivated students from reaching the classroom, and how families and schools struggle to close that gap. Her work focuses on expanding safe, reliable access to education, reducing single-occupancy trips, and giving schools real data on participation and mode shift. She writes and speaks regularly on student transportation, carpooling, and the future of how children get to school.