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Trustees review bus‑stop consolidation plan and SmartTag issues as driver shortage strains routes
Summary
District transportation staff proposed reducing afternoon stops from 77 to 33 to shorten routes, cut fuel use and improve safety; trustees asked for further analysis of traffic impacts, satellite bus storage, SmartTag reliability and equitable effects on families without transportation.
Liberty Hill ISD transportation staff presented a proposal to consolidate afternoon bus stops in neighborhoods to improve on‑time performance, reduce fuel and driver time, and decrease traffic congestion at multiple small stops.
Transportation lead Willoughby told trustees the consolidation would "reduce the overall number of stops in various neighborhoods from 77 to 33," streamline routes and lower idling time. The plan targets afternoon routes first (to minimize morning disruption) with a mid‑January implementation goal after community outreach.
Staff argued consolidation stays within the district's two‑mile walk zones and improves safety by reducing the number of places children must wait for buses and by minimizing the train‑effect of car traffic behind buses. The presentation also flagged the district's current shortage of about 10 drivers and described how combining stops compounds delay across routes.
Trustees pressed staff on operational details: deadhead miles created by the single existing bus barn, options for satellite bus storage, refueling cadence (about every two days), how SmartTag and routing software capture time/mileage data, and whether staffing increases would remove the need for consolidation. Transportation staff said satellite storage is possible but requires secure sites and that SmartTag routing tools are new and still maturing; the district recently retired a legacy routing subscription and is moving toward a SmartTag‑centric approach.
No board action was taken on the consolidation plan; staff recommended a phased roll‑out and committed to community notification and hazard‑route reviews before changes take effect.
