Starting this fall the Racine Unified School District will begin streamlining its transportation system. There are good ideas here, and the district deserves encouragement not only because the result should be a more efficient system but because it also should eventually be lower cost.

An outside study of Unified's transportation system done a couple of years ago found that the district transportation cost per student was $913 compared to a state average of $413. That's quite a difference especially when one considers that some districts cover larger areas with a lower population density.

As part of its plan, the district is starting a transition this fall to straight-line busing. School buses will no longer dip into each cul-de-sac to pick up each child in front of each home. Buses will instead run like city buses. There will be a designated stop at which children will be expected to gather. Already one can see that this will save many miles and much time.

Walking distances to these stops will be at most a half mile, certainly reasonable even in a Wisconsin winter when other children may walk up to 2 miles to school. Nor will a little more walking hurt. We already see health consequences for even young children who are not active enough.

Unified also plans to make more use of city buses, another completely logical step. The city already has a bus fleet, and there's no reason why anyone should pay for two buses when one will do. Although the cost per trip is about the same for a city bus or school bus, there is still a savings because the district pays an additional flat fee to put each school bus on the road.

Here's the payoff. The district is planning to have 1,300 children ride city buses this year. The actual number may be fewer - it was last year - but even if it falls to half that's still a significant number of school buses which don't have to be on the road. As a bonus, the sliding charge from the city bus system turns into a flat fee if student numbers cross a threshold between 800 and 900.

The obvious objection to all this streamlining is safety. Children on foot are more exposed. However, it is worth remembering that large numbers of children have for decades walked safely to and from school over greater distances and along busy streets.

Given the chaos that typically accompanies the opening of school, there is no doubt that we will see a wave of complaints from people who are confused, who didn't pay attention to the news, or who don't like change. Those problems can be worked through, and the district's resolve. These good ideas need a good chance.