The intent of this credit is reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use. Our project is a K-12 school with 450 occupants located in rural New Mexico. All of the students ride school buses to school each day, eliminating the need for parents to drive vehicles to the site. The school buses drop the students within 100 yards of the entrance of the building. Our parking lot is sized only to accommodate teachers, staff and visitors who drive to the school each day. To meet the requirements of this credit the project must be located within 1/4 mile of two or more public or campus bus lines usable by building occupants. In this case, we are considering school buses to be campus bus lines. Since the school buses drop the children off within 1/4 mile of the building we request compliance with this credit. We believe this fulfills the original intent of reducing pollution and land development impacts from automobile use. Is this an acceptable substitution for compliance with the credit requirements?
The project does not comply with this credit\'s requirements. School buses do not qualify as mass transit, as they are only for students. The purpose of this credit is to locate a project near existing mass transportation so that new lines/services do not need to be provided. There is no mass transit available for a significant portion of the users: building staff, teachers and visitors. The project team is encouraged to investigate the use of alternative fuel buses and pursue SSc4.3. Applicable Internationally.