![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260915_Jayden-Niemasz_BusStop_01.jpg\")
The old bus stop at the intersection of Route 412 and Princeton Avenue on Sept 15. 2026. The bus stop, located in the turning lane of a highway, was being criticized for being unsafe by local residents. (Jayden Niemasz\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\nA few days before school started in late August, mother and Bethlehem resident Brooke Molina opened an envelope with her stepson\u2019s bus pass, informing her of a change to his bus stop.<\/p>\n
She immediately pulled up Google maps on her phone to see where the new stop was.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh heck no,\u2019\u201d Molina said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to have my 10-year-old stepson walk all the way down there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new stop required her stepson, who normally walks home by himself from the bus, to cross two lanes of traffic on Route 412, a road she said is busy with semi-trucks and fast-moving vehicles.<\/p>\n
Molina said the sidewalk her son had to walk on was overgrown with bushes on one side, pushing him closer to the road.<\/p>\n
The old bus stop at the intersection of Route 412 and Princeton Avenue on Sept 15. 2026. The bus stop, located in the turning lane of a highway, was being criticized for being unsafe by local residents. (Jayden Niemasz\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
The stop was changed from Crest Avenue and Route 412 this year because of traffic violations at that stop, said Mark Stein, chief facilities and operations officer for the Bethlehem Area School District.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stein also said, to avoid stopping on Route 412 itself, the bus had to perform an illegal maneuver to turn around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Stoparm<\/a> bus cameras, which the Bethlehem Area School District uses, Stein said 14% of all traffic violations reported to the district last year were at the Crest Avenue stop.<\/p>\n The Princeton Avenue bus stop was a quarter of a mile farther down the road than Crest Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Molina said there wasn\u2019t a crossing guard to monitor children crossing Route 412.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 29 years old and I don\u2019t want to walk (to the bus stop),\u201d Molina said. \u201cI had to walk back from walking him down into the bus stop and I was like, \u2018why do I feel uncomfortable?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The walk made Molina so nervous that she would find a neighbor to leave her 2-year-old daughter with while she walked her stepson to the bus.<\/p>\n After opening the envelope informing her of the change, Molina said she first emailed the school to ask if the change was a mistake.\u00a0<\/p>\n After hearing back that it wasn\u2019t, Molina said she left a voicemail with the superintendent\u2019s office and didn\u2019t hear back.<\/p>\n Fed up, Molina decided to write a petition, printed it out and started walking around her neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI literally went door-to-door during naptime to get this petition signed and it was a lot of work, but we got it done,\u201d Molina said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She got signatures from 52 neighbors, 22 of whom have children who take the bus, Molina said.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the parents who signed her petition was Lynette Silva, whose fourth and second grader take the bus everyday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Silva said she needed no convincing to sign Molina\u2019s form.<\/p>\n \u201c(Route) 412 is a very busy road, I just didn\u2019t feel good about it,\u201d Silva said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very busy stretch of highway. There\u2019s a lot of tractor-trailer traffic because they have the fadeaway from 78 over to the industrial park.\u201d<\/p>\n Stein said Route 412 connects Interstate 78 to Bethlehem, meaning people coming off the interstate, sometimes exceeding the speed limit.<\/p>\n Before taking her petition to the school board, Molina first tried going to the Bethlehem Area School District Education Center and the transportation committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said it felt like nobody wanted to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSomething is getting missed between the BASD board, the staff, like something\u2019s not clicking and then the parents are just totally not even connected,\u201d Molina said.<\/p>\n Having no luck with these efforts, Molina asked Winston Alozie, a member of the school board whom she knew from the Boys and Girls Club of Bethlehem, what she should do.\u00a0<\/p>\n Molina said he told her to go to the school board and speak up.\u00a0<\/p>\n As someone with little experience in public speaking, she said she was extremely nervous.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI worked up the courage to write a speech, and I didn\u2019t think I was actually going to go in front of the board,\u201d Molina said. \u201cThis is not something I would ever do in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n