Parents in Apex are concerned about their children walking to Apex Friendship Middle School this year, a route that contains a busy main road.
Alison Alcaine said while the route her son will take to school isn't extremely far, it involves using a crosswalk at Humie Olive at Evans Road. Despite having a sign and flashing lights, Alcaine and other parents said it isn't safe enough.
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In October 2022, a student from Apex Friendship Middle School ended up in the hospital with serious injuries after being hit by a car while biking to school.
In 2017, a 15-year-old Apex Friendship High School student was hit by a car and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The speed limit is 45 mph but drops to 35 mph during school hours.
Parents have been lobbying for increased safety measures at the crossing for more than a decade.
“He’s going into 7th grade and I told him I will be going with you the first couple of weeks because I’m concerned about you crossing," Alcaine said of her son.
Alcaine says her part of the neighborhood had bus service last year but the school district took it away.
“All of us parents are scrambling with how are we going to get our kids to school safely when school starts next week?” she said.
Most of Alcaine's neighborhood meets the threshold for a no transport zone, a state law that doesn’t require schools to provide transportation if you live within 1.5 miles of the school your child goes to.
But Alcaine says she wasn’t given a reason as to why her son’s bus route was taken away. The route covered homes even further from the school than hers.
WRAL has asked Wake County Public Schools what goes into the decision making process for bus routes and whether or not a bus driver shortage is partly to blame for the bus changes for Apex Friendship families. We have not heard back from WCPSS.