School buses are operated by schools solely for students. There is no requirement nor motivation to allow anyone else to ride. Doing so would mean making students would wait longer as resources are deployed to the wider public. Or at the same service level another part of their budget would have to be cut to fund busing for the general public. There's already a shortage of bus drivers caused by school districts offering notoriously low pay, split shifts, and no benefits.
City public transportation is operated by transit agencies who conversely do not have a mandate nor motivation to handle the morning rush to schools or the afternoon demand spike of schools letting out. US transit agencies have even tighter budgets compared with schools. Hence why riding a city bus could take you an hour to make a trip that takes 15 min by private car. That awful service level would never be accepted for student transportation.
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School buses are operated by schools solely for students. There is no requirement nor motivation to allow anyone else to ride. Doing so would mean making students would wait longer as resources are deployed to the wider public. Or at the same service level another part of their budget would have to be cut to fund busing for the general public. There's already a shortage of bus drivers caused by school districts offering notoriously low pay, split shifts, and no benefits.
City public transportation is operated by transit agencies who conversely do not have a mandate nor motivation to handle the morning rush to schools or the afternoon demand spike of schools letting out. US transit agencies have even tighter budgets compared with schools. Hence why riding a city bus could take you an hour to make a trip that takes 15 min by private car. That awful service level would never be accepted for student transportation.