Bellaire Families Face the New Transportation 'Magnet Hub System'

Bellaire families are facing dramatic changes this year. Along with changing the middle and high school start and end times, HISD has also made changes to the bus system. The HISD News Blog reports, “The implementation of the magnet school hub program will allow students to commute directly to their campus, improving the on-time arrival rate of students, which will prevent lost instruction time by ensuring they are at school ready to learn when the first school bell rings.” However, it is no longer providing some students with a bus stop within a reasonable walking distance.

I have been affected by this change significantly. Last year, I could walk 10 minutes to my bus stop, whereas now my walk would be 50 minutes to the nearest hub. Because of the long-distance walks, other students now rely on parents to take them to the hub. This is not possible for me because my parents must report to work prior to the time I would need to be at the hub. My options were to be dropped off at my hub station an hour before the bus could pick me up, walking 50 minutes to the hub, or find an alternative solution. I chose to ride the Metro because I can leave at a decent time in the morning and walk 10 minutes to my stop.

Another student that is greatly impacted by the new transportation system is Gracie Carrera. I interviewed her to see how she was getting to school and this is the result.

“At first, my family was stressed out about how I was going to get to school because my parents left early to get to work. But eventually we had to work around everyone’s schedule in my family and my mom now takes me to school every morning,” Gracie said.

The hub is close by if her parents drove her, but if she walked, she would have to get up around the same time she did last year (with the consideration of the early school start times) and walk for a little less than half an hour. “That would be inconvenient to me because I would be all sweaty before school even started,” she said.  

In the HISD News Blog, Transportation Services General Manager, Timothy Brown, is quoted as saying, “Our primary focus continues to be providing all students with safe and reliable transportation to and from school.”

While riding the Metro, I have thought about some questions. How are students getting to school when they do not have a ride to their hub station or have the money to ride the Metro? Is a 50-minute walk to school safe and reliable for students? So, is the hub system actually benefiting Bellaire and other HISD students?