There is apparently a phenomenon in the US now, where parents drive to the school individually to pick up and drop off their children at the beginning and end of the day. Some people I work with even take time off from working to do this. When the parents descend on the school each day there’s insane traffic, cars lined up for miles, all idling their engines. What happened to school buses?
My son’s school charges $630 per year to ride the bus. And that is a public school. I still pay for it though, because, 1. I’m not going to spend my time sitting in a line cars every day. Not to mention take time off from work to do it. 2. I want him to experience life. It’s a great place for socialization
So what are working class families supposed to do if they can’t afford it and the parents can’t get time off work? The kids just don’t go to school?
@Billy_Gnosis @const_void my school bus ticket costed a bit over 400€ and it was a normal bus ticket which i could use to use the buses in the near vincinity. My parent needed to pay 0€ directly for this.
And this was over 10 years ago, so the price is around 450 now.It’s crazy. When I was a kid (a long time ago) it cost nothing to ride the bus to school.
@Billy_Gnosis @Sebastian £17.50 a week, £70 a month, about £682.50 a year, which is $857.56 USD. I cry every-time I check my bank balance 😔
@Billy_Gnosis its completly paid by the county/Kreis, because they are the “owners”
Here in Germany there is now a ticket for 49€ a month (588€ a year but you can cancel it every month) that allows you to ride on any public transit and regional trains in the entire country. As an adult too, not just as a student. It is a personalized one though (non-transferable).
“It’s a great place for socialization” yeah like being bullied. Lol
Not sure what school your kids go to, that’s type of stuff isn’t an issue for mine. I’m sure things do happen, but that’s part of growing up and learning. It’s called life
@const_void
I always walked to school as a kid and it was very high priority to me that the neighborhood I live in now allows my kids to do the samedeleted by creator
This is the big thing about carbrains in the US, it’s endemic of a bigger obsession with infinite individuality. Sharing space with another human being is the ULTIMATE taboo. Depressingly far above such things as fascism and pedophilia.
More people can walk in the UK though, that traffic can be bad but it is better than it could be
When I was in school, the bus route did not stop near my house, and it was too far to walk, and there was no good bike route (though one exists now). In middle and high school I would often walk or bike to a friend’s house after school but that wasn’t always an option.
This is a situation forced on us by car-centric city planning
We don’t do school buses anymore? I suppose we have to condition them to drive everywhere in a car from when they’re young.
That’s SoCiAlIsT!
Socialism is when School Bus
When I was a teacher, the main reason so many students were dropped off and picked up at my school was because of what we call “School of Choice.” Essentially instead of parents being required to send their kid to the school their home is zoned for, they can send their kid to any school in the district, but if they do, they have to provide transportation.
It is so miserable and effectively shuts down a major street. People will tolerate the dumbest things just because it is the status quo.
I grew up with this culture, unfortunately, never rode a school bus or saw one.
And yea, it is complete trash. Let’s put tiny vulnerable road-unintelligent children, all running around, in the same place as a bunch of stressed out parents driving cars while mostly thinking about work or not being late for work.
What could go wrong!
Shit … let’s reduce the speed limit drastically to prevent accidents! Ok, now it’s just a big fat traffic Jam! Shit … let’s build specialised roads within the school to increase the speed of drop off. Ok … now we’ve lost some of our school grounds and it’s marginally better … except everyone’s driving tanks/four-wheel-drives now so it’s pretty dangerous for kids still! Shit lets …
Seen all of that. It’s really really dumb and stressful for kids and parents alike.
They aren’t really like tanks. Tanks have some design considerations for the driver to notice people in front of the vehicle.
@const_void the school traffic situation was the tipping point for getting a #cargobike for us. Much calmer and faster way to do it, with opportunity for spotting and chatting about stuff going on in the neighbourhood. There’s the occasional poor driver behaviour that affects us but it’s quite rare compared what you get in the car.
I’m assuming the insane cuts to our public education system trickle down to the bus drivers too
That’s a bingo!
FWIW, I live in the US and my kids ride their bikes to and from school. It is possible, but only in a few places.
Completely insane and infuriating every time I see it.
Oh man it’s the worst. I used to work in an office next to a high school and a 10-minute drive to work in the summer months became almost an hour as soon as school started.
You can’t expect parents to let their kids WALK to school can you? It’s not safe - there’s so many cars around! 🙄
The yellow school bus is like one of the most recognised US specific object. I thought they were standard issue in the US lol
Due to people’s habit of voting against funding school districts here, there isn’t enough funding for all children to be on the bus (ie paying enough drivers). So the busses are reserved for children who live farther. If you live within a certain radius of the school you can pay extra to put your children on the bus.
Small and dense Canadian city here… not sure we even have school buses although I’ve seen them in other nearby school districts where I assume the catchment areas are wider.
And yes, they’re the standard yellow school bus 🙂
My kids walk to school and we live 4 blocks from the school. I have always allowed mine to walk. Even when they were in elementary school.
I walked to school no reason they can’t. And today it’s easier because they have phones I can track them on.
There is a nice sweet spot when they’re old enough to have phones but not old enough to complain about having you track them 🙂
It’s great to have them walk, even when they’re very young and you need to walk with them.
Back in my day (insert grandpa Simpson gif here!) I had a 10min walk to a bus stop and caught a public bus. Felt sorry for the adults that had to catch the same bus with 40 wild children.
These days I think my friends’ school age kids all walk or cycle - we’re in a small city with fairly good bike infrastructure.
This can depend on a lot of factors, but the biggest is often time. School busses usually can service the overwhelming number of kids in their district, but for some kids that route can add an extra hour before and after school. For kids with after school activities, that could be a non-starter.
