Would you let your child walk to school down Cedarbridge Avenue, Cross Street, County Line Road, Route 88, or any other hazardous road with no sidewalks and heavy traffic?
For many parents, the answer is obvious: No.
Most of Lakewood is not safe to walk to school with no sidewalks safe shoulders and crossing busy intersections.
And that is precisely the problem. There are roads in Lakewood that are recognized as hazardous for children traveling to and from school. New Jersey itself recognizes hazardous walking routes and allows districts to provide transportation for students who would otherwise have to walk along those routes.
Yet under current New Jersey law, a student who lives within the mileage threshold is not automatically entitled to transportation simply because the route is dangerous. Districts may provide courtesy or subscription busing and may charge parents for that service.
In Lakewood, the Township pays the Board of Education for courtesy and hazardous transportation for public-school students. Private-school families, however, are required to pay out of pocket when they opt into courtesy transportation through the LSTA. With the annual fee increasing to $675, families are being asked to pay for transportation because the alternative is for children to travel along roads that have been designated hazardous.
This should not be a question of whether a family can afford the bus. A child's safety should not depend on whether his or her parents can afford the transportation fee.
A distance measured on a map does not tell us whether a child can safely walk that route. Two miles on a sidewalk is not the same thing as two miles along a road with no sidewalk, heavy traffic, high speeds, blind curves, dangerous crossings, or other hazards.
This is why the fight should not stop with the Lakewood Board of Education or the Township. This needs to be fought in Trenton.
New Jersey legislators need to hear directly from parents, school districts, municipalities, and communities dealing with these dangerous routes. The Legislature has already recognized that this is a problem. Legislation introduced in 2026, S4327, would establish statewide criteria for hazardous school routes for purposes of courtesy busing for students who are not remote.
The State should establish clear, objective criteria for hazardous school routes and provide funding so that children who are required to travel along those routes can be transported safely, regardless of whether they attend public or nonpublic school and regardless of their family's ability to pay a courtesy-busing fee.
This is not simply a Lakewood issue. It affects communities throughout New Jersey where children live within walking distance on paper but face roads that no responsible parent would consider a safe walking route.
We should be asking our state senators and assembly members: Will you support eliminating the financial burden on families whose children cannot safely walk to school? Will you meet with Lakewood parents and community leaders to hear firsthand about the roads our children are expected to navigate?
This fight belongs in Trenton.
Lakewood families should not have to choose between paying thousands of dollars a year and putting their children in a situation that the school district recognizes as unsafe.
We should not be asking parents, “Can you afford the bus?”
We should be asking the State of New Jersey, “If a route is hazardous for a child to walk, why isn't safe transportation guaranteed?”
Our children deserve better.
At a meeting January 6, 2021 to add amendments to the student transportation rules, the issue of bus safety under 2 miles was brought up but the state responded "traffic safety is not within the scope of the readoption with amendments".
In New Jersey if you are a private school student and don't qualify for mandated busing because you live less than 2 miles away you but it is not safe to walk you still have to pay for busing. NJ Law Whenever a district board of education agrees to provide nonmandated transportation to and from school for reasons of hazard, the district board of education shall adopt a
hazardous busing policy in accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:39-1.5. regarding the transportation of students who must walk to and from school along hazardous routes. The policy shall include a list of hazardous routes in the district requiring the courtesy busing of students and the criteria used in designating the hazardous routes. On the NJ.gov website it states that "Boards of education are not required by law to provide busing for students who live less than remote from school "even for safety reasons".
"Q. Is it a district's responsibility to provide transportation for students who live less than remote from school when hazardous road conditions exist?
A. Boards of education are not required by law to provide busing for students who live less than remote from school even for safety reasons. However, boards are permitted, at their own discretion and expense, to provide transportation for students who reside less than remote from school and may charge the student's parents or legal guardians for this service. Municipalities may also contract with boards of education for this service and charge the parents. This transportation service is called Subscription Busing.
Bill S2975. Transportation for Hazardous Walking Routes Act; requires school districts to provide busing for students required to walk to school along hazardous routes
List of streets designated hazardous by Lakewood township and BOE
1. Fourteenth Street (Across Madison)
2. Pine Street
3. Forest Avenue
4. Route 70
5. New Hampshire Avenue
6. Central Avenue
7. Cedarbridge Avenue
8. Kennedy Boulevard (East & West to Teaberry)
9. Route #9 (Madison Avenue & River Avenue)
10. Ridge Avenue (Brook Road over Lanes Mills)
11. County Line Road (West to East including Lanes Mills)
12. Park Avenue (From 2nd Street to County Line Road) – Elementary School Students Only
13. Ocean Avenue/Route #88 (From Lane Mills Road to Route 9)
14. Miller Road
15. Joe Parker Road
16. Cross Street
17. Hope Chapel Road
18. Chestnut Street
19. Squankum Road
20. James Street
21. New Hampshire Avenue
22. Locust Street
23. Washington Avenue
24. Kennedy Boulevard (Between Twin Oaks)
25. Vine Street
26. Clifton Avenue
27. Oak Street
28. Hillside Street
29. Williams Street
30. Prospect Street