When Narelle Hynson drops her two children off at the bus stop each morning, she fears today will be the day something goes terribly wrong.
"They're travelling down a road that hits 100 kilometres an hour, and if that bus needs to stop suddenly — where are those children going to end up?" she said.
Ms Hynson's kids are usually among 60 or so students piling onto the bus leaving Ocean Grove on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula.
Seats on board are a hot commodity, leaving dozens of students to sit cross-legged in the aisle or stand should-to-shoulder in the stairwell.
Others cram into the luggage storage area.
She has no choice but to use the bus system because of her work hours, but Ms Hynson said her children were not safe on the overcrowded journey to and from school.
"It's hard to hear because I'm thinking: 'How can you be safe?'"
Ms Hynson spends $700 a year for her children to squeeze onto the bus, but said her complaints have not been heard.
The bus company, McHarry's, said it was up to Public Transport Victoria (PTV) to set the bus frequency and quantity.
PTV said it would consider Ms Hynson's feedback "in future planning".
Growing pains cause transport headaches
The rapid growth of the Geelong region is painfully obvious to locals.
Tales of Melburnians moving to the region to work from home by the coast, or young couples seeking affordable housing in the ever-expanding estates, have become commonplace.
The city is growing at the third-fastest rate of any city in the country and the signs are everywhere, from rising house prices to urban sprawl.
Five years ago, every student had a seat on the Ocean Grove bus.
But with the growth has come growing pains, particularly for roads which are already under more pressure than ever.
Statistics compiled by consulting firms Urbis, VLC and Movement & Place show the boom will take its toll, with congestion increasing by 566 per cent by 2041.
In the same time frame, several important arterial roads will exceed their capacity.
Geelong commuters can only expect to average 36 kilometres per hour in the city during morning peak hour.
While regional train and coach services connect Geelong to Melbourne and other regional centres, intracity transport is limited to the bus network, which is managed by PTV.
Guilia Baggio, chief executive of regional council alliance G21, said the data showed the urgent need to invest in public transport networks to ease congestion.
"We need that work done now — that planning done now — so that we can get ahead of the problem and make sure we're fit for purpose over the next 10 to 20 years," she said.
Geelong still a car-dependent city
Dylan Barmby can almost see the bus stop out the front window of his new house.
But he rarely gets to use the bus.
"I work in hospitality so it sort of rules me out of being able to use it for a commute," he said.
The lifelong Geelong resident recently bought a house in the eastern suburb of Whittington and drives to his bar job in the city.
He could get the bus in, but they do not run late enough to get him home once his shift wraps up at 9:00pm at the earliest.
"Geelong is a particularly car dependent place and it's quickly growing into a city and I feel like the public transport hasn't really come along with that at all," Mr Barmby said.
"You need a good public transport system to service those suburbs so people can get in and get home without spending $40 on an Uber."
Paul Westcott, head of the Public Transport Users Association, said he has been pushing for 15 years for more frequent bus services and more direct routes, as well as to extend the timetable.
"Public transport in Geelong is basically a social service system, unfortunately. It's basically designed for people who don't have cars," he said.
"If you have a car it's not going to be particularly attractive to you.
"An increased, improved, more frequent bus service is vital and it's up to the state government to commit to that and to reduce Geelong's car dependence and increase our non-car mobility by committing to the necessary funding."
Transport Department regional director of Barwon South West, Michael Tudball, said the department was preparing for "rapid expansion and development across the Greater Geelong region".
"As we deliver major projects such as the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds duplication rail project and the Geelong line upgrade, we're making sure our bus planning aligns with these developments," he said in a statement.
The Department didn't give a time frame for any changes to the bus network.
It also said while school bus safety was a number one priority and was actively monitored, there was no plan to add more services to the Ocean Grove to Geelong school bus route because current services have not exceeded the carrying capacity.
