Spiraling gas price forces kids to hoof it

US schoolchildren will face longer walks to the bus stop, longer days and shorter weeks at school, while university students are pushed to take online courses, all thanks to relentless spiraling fuel prices.

Several counties in the central-eastern state of Maryland are considering giving their yellow school buses shorter routes to save gas, widening the minimum pick-up radius from the standard 1.6 kilometers for primary schoolchildren and 3.2 kilometers for high schoolers.

"Gas is very expensive, they want have something in place that would allow the superintendent to react, to make adjustments to those distances and bus routes, if necessary, if gas become even more expensive," said Montgomery County Public School spokesman Chris Cram.