Fulton County Continues to Time Sweet Apple, Milton Drive

Fulton County School system officials have said the 2.2 mile drive between the community of Roswell and only takes as little as four minutes, but that has raised some eyebrows among local residents.

"Did they run this bus route at 3 a.m.?"  asked the question on  story. "There is no way you could get [from] Edenwilde to [Milton High School] in four minutes in the morning, no way."

According to Yngrid Huff, the school system ran the 2.2-mile trip last week from the Sweet Apple community to Milton High following a staged  by 48 vehicles at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, May 4. The trip took 32 minutes, according to parents who participated.

Huff said it took the school system's bus driver four minutes to the school, and seven minutes back.

Roswell Patch reader, "D," echoed Reavis thoughts, saying, "Huff is living in a dream world. I live in North Farm, just up the road from Edenwilde, between Rucker and Crabapple. It is impossible to get out of our subdivision early in the morning."

"Threeboysmom," an reader commented, "If you ask any resident of both Fulton and Cherokee counties, who drive south on [State Route] 140 then east on Crabapple, they will tell you that there is no possible way that a trip from Edenwilde to Milton High only takes three to four minutes during rush hour, which is when our students will be traveling!"

According to school officials, the drive from the Crabapple Road/State Route 140 intersection to Milton High took approximately four minutes. But they didn't run into traffic or red lights, which made for a quick trip. A return trip took closer to seven minutes, both much less than what residents accomplished. Huff said a caravan of cars would not be typical in the morning.

Patch recently timed a 2.6-mile trip from Etris/Hardscrabble roads to Milton High School. Despite the fact that the trip was made at 3 p.m., which is just under the most heavily congested time of the afternoon and does not even come close to the amount of traffic that fills the area every morning, the trip took 7 minutes 51 seconds - longer than the four minute drive by the school system.

Additionally, the driver only hit one red traffic light during the run. 

Huff previously said the system hopes to encourage bus ridership, especially in the morning when traffic is heaviest.

"If we could increase bus ridership in the morning, that would help alleviate traffic as well," she said.

The afternoon doesn't have the same delays.

"We will continue to run similar analysis throughout the remainder of the school year to verify the accuracy of the estimates," Huff has said. Questions by Patch regarding additional timed runs have not yet been answered.