I live in the UK and walk my children to school every day. There is still a line for school pickup/drop-off because not everyone is so lucky.
This isn’t even an American phenomenon.
Some amount of people will be driving cars to pickup and drop-off every day, even if it’s minimized and even if it’s not always the same people.
So it stands to reason they should do it in some kind of orderly fashion as dictated by the school for the safety of, get this, THE CHILDREN ARRIVING BY FOOT, BIKE OR BUS
We’re also talking about five year olds walking 1-2 mi at the end of a long day. Older kids, fine, but 5 is pretty young. I don’t think my parents were comfortable with me walking/biking home alone until 4th grade.
There’s also plenty of other valid use cases, such as if you are taking your kid to something after school. Or they have an activity which causes them to stay late. Or you don’t want them to take the bus cause you’re already in the neighborhood and why not pick them up as a treat (when I was growing up, buses didn’t have a/c - riding in anything that didn’t have a bunch of smelly sweating kids was definitely a treat)
Even if they’re within walking range only 25% of kids walk. 50% are driven by private car, and 25% take the bus. So you literally have 50% of kids that are within walking range still getting dropped off/picked up by private vehicle.
For your other use cases, that’s why other countries use public transit rather than publicly funded school buses that only run twice a day. It’s just a massive waste of money.
Yeah the truth of the matter is, people use cars because they have them. If they didn’t have them things would be a lot different. You can see that by looking at the data on that link as well. 70% of impoverished children ride the school bus. So not only are those kids disadvantaged with money, but they’re disadvantaged with the situations you’re talking about with after school activities as well. Public transit would be better for everyone here. We wouldn’t be funding these school buses that might ride empty, taxpayer dollars would be able to be reallocated to the actual teaching in the school or even better public transit. A small portion of that would go to the impoverished or those that can’t take public transit.
It might just be possible that in a country of 300+ million people spread over 3 million square miles where each school district is operated at a local level…for two people to have had different experiences.
Either way if your parents thought 5 was old enough to get home from school by yourself, good for you I guess.
They didn’t, I walked home with a friend who lived nearby and hung out until my mom was done work. Could have taken the bus home, but they didn’t want me home alone at that age.
Also, it may not seem like it anymore, but we do have a Department of Education that could pretty easily come up with nationwide rules regarding bussing. They could even afford to subsidize it in areas with lower income. Or, you know, not make education quality a function of an area’s wealth in the first place, and just administer it all at the federal (or even just state) level.
Meanwhile we have busses that don’t always go anywhere close to everyone’s houses (or if they do, they may take multiple hours to get there after dropping off a hundred other kids), almost non-existent sidewalks in most suburbs, dumbasses who don’t watch for people on bikes, and a court system that’s regularly faulted the person on the bike for getting hit.
Greatest country!
Also, at least where I live, you have to have prior permission to ride the bus. Your parent is going to be late picking you up? Guess you’re waiting outside cause they didn’t pre sign the permission slip!
We envision them taking a bus, walking, or biking home. Not them each getting picked up individually by their parents
When a world without cars is inconceivable, it becomes a presumed condition of the question that the answer must involve cars.
I live in the UK and walk my children to school every day. There is still a line for school pickup/drop-off because not everyone is so lucky.
This isn’t even an American phenomenon.
Some amount of people will be driving cars to pickup and drop-off every day, even if it’s minimized and even if it’s not always the same people.
So it stands to reason they should do it in some kind of orderly fashion as dictated by the school for the safety of, get this, THE CHILDREN ARRIVING BY FOOT, BIKE OR BUS
We’re also talking about five year olds walking 1-2 mi at the end of a long day. Older kids, fine, but 5 is pretty young. I don’t think my parents were comfortable with me walking/biking home alone until 4th grade.
There’s also plenty of other valid use cases, such as if you are taking your kid to something after school. Or they have an activity which causes them to stay late. Or you don’t want them to take the bus cause you’re already in the neighborhood and why not pick them up as a treat (when I was growing up, buses didn’t have a/c - riding in anything that didn’t have a bunch of smelly sweating kids was definitely a treat)
Even if they’re within walking range only 25% of kids walk. 50% are driven by private car, and 25% take the bus. So you literally have 50% of kids that are within walking range still getting dropped off/picked up by private vehicle.
For your other use cases, that’s why other countries use public transit rather than publicly funded school buses that only run twice a day. It’s just a massive waste of money.
https://www.bts.gov/topics/passenger-travel/back-school-2019
Well that’s fun data. The very bottom of the page links to the raw dataset.
This country also uses public buses in some areas. Where I grew up the school board staggered starts so the school busses are used most of the day.
Yeah the truth of the matter is, people use cars because they have them. If they didn’t have them things would be a lot different. You can see that by looking at the data on that link as well. 70% of impoverished children ride the school bus. So not only are those kids disadvantaged with money, but they’re disadvantaged with the situations you’re talking about with after school activities as well. Public transit would be better for everyone here. We wouldn’t be funding these school buses that might ride empty, taxpayer dollars would be able to be reallocated to the actual teaching in the school or even better public transit. A small portion of that would go to the impoverished or those that can’t take public transit.
2 miles would be in the bus zone.
I don’t know why people are pretending this is impossible, it’s exactly how it worked when I was in public school. In the US.
Everyone walked or took a bus. Maybe there was like one or two kids who had some sort of special circumstance that required them to get picked up.
It might just be possible that in a country of 300+ million people spread over 3 million square miles where each school district is operated at a local level…for two people to have had different experiences.
Either way if your parents thought 5 was old enough to get home from school by yourself, good for you I guess.
They didn’t, I walked home with a friend who lived nearby and hung out until my mom was done work. Could have taken the bus home, but they didn’t want me home alone at that age.
Also, it may not seem like it anymore, but we do have a Department of Education that could pretty easily come up with nationwide rules regarding bussing. They could even afford to subsidize it in areas with lower income. Or, you know, not make education quality a function of an area’s wealth in the first place, and just administer it all at the federal (or even just state) level.
So…you just had a personal pick-up line at your friend’s house?
We walked home from school. What happened after that is irrelevant. Especially if we’re talking about car-heavy infrastructure surrounding the school.
You mean streets? Cause that’s all we see in this picture, just traffic. Takes streets to go to your personal pick up lane.
Meanwhile we have busses that don’t always go anywhere close to everyone’s houses (or if they do, they may take multiple hours to get there after dropping off a hundred other kids), almost non-existent sidewalks in most suburbs, dumbasses who don’t watch for people on bikes, and a court system that’s regularly faulted the person on the bike for getting hit.
Greatest country!
Also, at least where I live, you have to have prior permission to ride the bus. Your parent is going to be late picking you up? Guess you’re waiting outside cause they didn’t pre sign the permission slip!
Ok that’s lovely. And the ones who are being picked up individually by their parents? They don’t wait in a line?
Why would they, there’s like five of them…
I’m sure you can imagine how if there were more then 5 that could become a problem right?
I suppose you are also capable of imagining schools other than your own?