Students from all over the Cape attend the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School (CCLCS) in Orleans. A new parent-centered bus group is getting students to school while saving thousands of miles, hundreds of gallons of gasoline, and tons of greenhouse gas emissions each week.

Only students who live within the Nauset School District are eligible for bus service to CCLCS, a public charter school for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Until September 2008, parents living outside the district had to drive their children or carpool with others to school, making for lots of miles traveled on Route 6 to and from Exit 12 … and lots of gasoline consumed, time and money spent, and pollution and greenhouse gases released.

In summer 2008, parents from Bourne to Dennis began meeting to come up with a more efficient transportation solution. On September 2, the efforts of the Lighthouse Parent Bus Group reached fruition with the launch of scheduled school bus service with stops at Exits 5, 7, 8, and 9. Driving from home to the nearest exit is still necessary, but each round-trip bus run eliminates numerous west-to-east/east-to-west drives to school of anywhere from 25 to 70 miles.

For each full week, the CCLCS Green Bus reduces aggregate “vehicle miles traveled” by somewhere around 3700 miles, with associated savings of over 200 gallons of gasoline and almost 2 tons of greenhouse gas emissions! Parents pay about $160/month for scheduled bus service, but the savings in time, gas, aggravation, wear and tear, and emissions make this a worthwhile investment. And as the number of riders increases, the monthly fee will drop and the aggregate benefits will increase.

For more information contact the Lighthouse Parent Bus Group at lighthousebusinfo@comcast.net.