by trevin on 3/14/25, 5:16 PM with 377 comments
by aklemm on 3/14/25, 5:36 PM
A small win in our family was in my son's final year of elementary school when he finally decided to try walking home 1.5 miles; that Spring was a delight for him. He was properly decompressed and had logged a minimum amount of physical activity for good sleep and all the rest.
Pay for the buses! Build the greenways! Normalize walking! And stop worrying about abductions for the love of gawd!
by giarc on 3/14/25, 5:35 PM
by ryandrake on 3/14/25, 5:41 PM
Our family suffers this insanity, too. This is one of the few things my spouse absolutely refuses to budge on: she won't let our child walk, bicycle, or even take the school bus to school because of vague "danger" that the news media is pumping into her. School is only 3 miles away and we live in a peaceful rural-to-suburban area. The kid could walk that distance at midnight and not be even remotely at risk. No facts, statistics or reasoning works.
by me_smith on 3/14/25, 5:51 PM
I'm not a parent, so I don't know what I don't know; but, I've observed so many kids being shuffled between school, events, "play dates" where it is harder to build deep relationships outside of the parent's sight. Everything is being curated to "ensure" the kids are safe or on the "right" path.
I understand that we live in a different world, but I really do feel that its to the detriment of the kids.
by lvl155 on 3/14/25, 5:46 PM
Edit: no one told these parents to drive up for pick up like a drive-through. In most cases, it is a choice. You can opt to park like a normal person and walk up. This article is absurd. Most of these parents are too lazy to walk 5 minutes. I’ve seen parents show up 40 minutes to be first in queue…just so they don’t have to get out of their cars. Makes zero sense.
by alistairSH on 3/14/25, 6:03 PM
I live ~1 mile from the local school complex (primary, middle, high all share a gigantic piece of land, though are separate full-size schools). You literally don't have to cross a street to get there from my house - it's all neighborhood walking paths and there's a short underpass at the one road. Yet, kids are not supposed to walk. There's a bus, which isn't the end of the world. Except in the time it takes to wait for the bus, you could walk most of the way to school. And 1/4 of the parents drive their kids anyway.
It's completely absurd.
Of course, I walk the ~1 mile to my office in the other direction and most of my coworkers think I'm a loon. So, I guess this shouldn't be surprising. Americans are just hard-wired to drive even the shortest distances. We've done such a piss-poor job with urban planning and transit design that 3+ generations of Americans think anything but a car is unthinkable (literally, I don't think it crosses their minds).
by thehoagie on 3/14/25, 6:27 PM
by gizajob on 3/14/25, 5:33 PM
by legitster on 3/14/25, 5:43 PM
The bus service is completely unreasonable. They shopped it out to the lowest bidder and the stops are all in terrible spots on busy streets. It also takes longer to sit and wait in the cold with a 6 year old than it would be to just drive there and back.
by appleorchard46 on 3/14/25, 6:01 PM
What a mess.
[0] https://reason.com/2024/11/11/mom-jailed-for-letting-10-year...
by rdsubhas on 3/14/25, 6:25 PM
Here I am, in Germany, my kid goes to school by himself since second grade. Most of his classmates started to walk, bike, or take the train, bus or tram themselves at 3rd or 4th grade. Beyond 6th grade, it's considered a spoiled baby.
by zip1234 on 3/14/25, 5:41 PM
by drewg123 on 3/14/25, 6:10 PM
My son's school was about 250 meters from his mom's house. Due to the NIMBY way the neighborhoods were built, he would have had to ride his bike or walk 2.5 miles on busy roads w/o bike lanes to get to his mom's house. The direct route was 2 dead end roads that should have connected the neighborhoods together. But instead, there was ~30m of dense forest marked with "no trespassing" signs.
This meant that me and his mom had to wait in the school line rather than him being able to walk/bike to and from school. Even when I had custody, I would have much rather picked him up from his mom's house than school because the line was miserable.
I was so happy when he got his license and was able to drive himself.
by hk1337 on 3/14/25, 5:40 PM
by trevin on 3/14/25, 5:51 PM
As population and (perceived) facilities increased, the schools built new buildings in farmland or other wide open areas on the outskirts of town to have more room for stuff like stadiums, huge auditoriums, bigger playgrounds. The land may be cheaper but the new high schools are almost more like college campuses vs. stately buildings in the middle of town.
There's an appetite for more and we've relocated schools to make more room not save money.
by wavemode on 3/14/25, 6:01 PM
That linked article is incredible to me (considering how much I used to walk around at that age).
If our culture becomes so backwards that you will actually be criminalized for letting your kids move around independently, then of course we'll be doomed to car pickup lines forever.
by WillAdams on 3/14/25, 5:58 PM
To help support that, it should be expected that on the first day of school, police officers will ride bikes along all the routes students are expected to cover --- to help support that, bring back truant officers and put them on bicycles.
by mooreds on 3/14/25, 5:46 PM
Even though my family has the flexible schedule to handle dropping kids via car, by using the bus system I help support the community and others who might not have that flexibility.
Plus, the school bus is one of the first places a kid might be without (much) adult supervision. A tremendous growth opportunity, where you learn how to deal with discomfort, difference and drama.
by rattlesnakedave on 3/14/25, 5:49 PM
Further, schools near me won't allow many children to walk home even within a safe walking distance with parental consent for (and I quote) "liability reasons". Absurd.
by blobbers on 3/14/25, 5:52 PM
by ghugccrghbvr on 3/14/25, 7:00 PM
It’s the same all over Europe.
The distance to school is a social choice. But in the US, kids can’t even get off a school bus without a parent waiting
Fear culture and security theater
by user3939382 on 3/14/25, 5:43 PM
by Mistletoe on 3/14/25, 5:38 PM
by lxe on 3/14/25, 6:47 PM
by hnthrowaway0315 on 3/14/25, 5:59 PM
Me? I picked the public elementary school 10 minutes of walk away instead of the private one that is 20+ minutes of driving. I don't want everyone in the household gets frustrated pretty much every Mon-Fri.
Secondary school is going to be a bit of issue. We do have one that is adjacent to the said elementary school but it is not very good. But then my son would be 11 years old by then so hopefully he can just take the bus.
by ZekeSulastin on 3/14/25, 5:52 PM
Unfortunately we moved during high school and lived something like 15 miles from the new school; at least there was a bus.
by cavisne on 3/14/25, 7:24 PM
The idea of common spaces in American cities largely died during & after Covid. Anything you did in public (gyms, eating out, public transport, apartment common areas) was suddenly prey to whatever idea a politician had that morning. I think we all remember walking into a restaurant with a mask on, to promptly take it off as soon as you sat down. At the same time as these guidelines were being piled on, basically all laws below murder stopped being enforced. So you had to negotiate a bus full of drug addicts shooting up and riding for free, or leave the sidewalk because it had been taken over by a tent city.
Personal transport is required in America, the places with the infrastructure to avoid it dont have the capacity to govern (any big city). The places with the governing capacity (suburban, rural areas) dont have the infrastructure.
by newuser94303 on 3/14/25, 5:51 PM
by AStonesThrow on 3/14/25, 6:01 PM
Once Dad bought a new car and surprised us by not picking us up in the one we recognized?!
Around 5th grade I had some sort of trauma-drama on the soccer field, needed to call in Mom for a pickup. I didn’t know what a busy-tone sounded like despite figuring out the payphone on campus. I held the receiver to my ear for 10 minutes anxiously hoping Mom would answer.
I believe the rare school bus rides were field trips, and once my friend and I were in the rear, frantically waving and smiling at every other motorist to see how they’d respond, and we failed to cause any accidents
I feel it was a curse on Mom to put so many miles on Soccer Mom Car. Parents couldn’t hardly wait for our maturity and licensing!
by aantix on 3/14/25, 6:10 PM
If you let your kid out roaming, walking home from school, and the child causes a minor issue, you get the wrath of "Why aren't you watching your kid?"???
So we've developed this culture around ensuring that the child is accounted for at all hours of the day. Drop off, pickup from school, included.
by haswell on 3/14/25, 7:03 PM
> Note: I used AI to create this image rather than pull one from another site without permission.
I don't have kids, and while I've seen pickup lines from time to time, I have very little first-hand experience with them. So my brain reacts to the image:
- Is this image a realistic representation?
- If it is, I have no first-hand knowledge to verify it
- If it's not, I have no way to know without going and looking for images myself
- If it is, it's undermining the content by representing something real with something fake
Artwork/illustrations/visualizations are often critical when communicating via text. But I think that when someone is writing about a factual matter - a real phenomenon that is occurring regularly - using fake imagery is just the wrong choice.
by skybrian on 3/14/25, 5:50 PM
I went to school in a semi-rural school district, one of the largest in the state by area. I just checked Google Maps and the high school is 13 miles away, 16 minutes by car (much of it highway), and maybe a half hour by school bus if I remember correctly. It could be a bit tedious, but it wasn't a terrible commute by any means.
> Parents are not simply choosing to drive their children to school because it’s fun to sit in a long line. It is becoming more of a necessity because schools are more spread out than before, or at least families are living further from their schools.
Necessity? I don't see what's wrong with school buses. They're just about the only practical form of mass transit in rural areas. They work for all ages, in any weather where the school is open at all.
by tslocum on 3/14/25, 5:37 PM
by gist on 3/14/25, 7:10 PM
It's also a way for a parent to think somehow they are doing the right thing and get a little enjoyment in their head (despite the time involved or wasted) 'I am a good parent'. Doesn't involve as much effort as other things a parent does (or should do) it's simple (other than the time).
by xela79 on 3/18/25, 2:10 PM
by kkylin on 3/14/25, 5:50 PM
[0] Our current bike route from home to school isn't optimal -- too many busy streets where drivers routinely run reds. That's a rant for another day...
by cainxinth on 3/14/25, 6:40 PM
It is, but like the pickup line, it’s also a national embarrassment. Half the buses in my town are ancient and belch black smoke like a semi rolling coal.
by furyofantares on 3/14/25, 5:47 PM
I was never enrolled in any as a kid and never really expected for my kid to be, because I thought parents were the motivating factor for kids to get into a bunch of activities, but IME they aren't. My kid loves her activities and picking her up to shuttle her directly to it is a lot quicker than using a bus or walking.
by jinushaun on 3/16/25, 6:00 AM
by CLiED on 3/14/25, 7:10 PM
by mcbishop on 3/14/25, 5:44 PM
by nextdoorsv on 3/14/25, 5:52 PM
(TLDR: It's Prop 13's fault)
https://www.kqed.org/news/11980715/why-dont-more-bay-area-ki...
>California has fewer school buses than in other parts of the country. A survey conducted by the Federal Highway Administration found that nationally, almost 40% of school-aged kids ride a school bus. In California, that number is only 8%.
>Like so many questions related to school funding and services, the answer to Winters’ question has roots in the passage of Proposition 13
by samgranieri on 3/14/25, 6:01 PM
by daft_pink on 3/15/25, 3:41 PM
by twiddling on 3/14/25, 6:56 PM
How children lost the right to roam in four generations
by biophysboy on 3/14/25, 6:08 PM
by yieldcrv on 3/14/25, 5:42 PM
The most rambunctious, violent, harrowing and underpoliced part of the day
Not offering a solution, just an observation
by richwater on 3/14/25, 5:51 PM
I don't want to blame it on diversity but the example provided in the article is a homogenous-culture society with high trust.
by bartimus on 3/15/25, 9:36 AM
by bluGill on 3/14/25, 5:43 PM
by xnx on 3/15/25, 6:19 PM
by willmeyers on 3/14/25, 5:46 PM
by rurban on 3/16/25, 7:31 AM
I've read some timed ago that drowning in swimmingpools was the leading cause of deaths for kids. So maybe the mandatory protections (fences) there did help. So more schoolbuses could help with their pickup line crisis.
In Germany in our schools such pickup lines are explicitly forbidden. Kids must go by themselves (bus or bike). Helicopter parenting is frawned upon, and recent right-wing rumors in Berlin amongst silly parents about organized Rumanian abduction trucks are actively fought. Dangerous fakenews on social media, probably Russian.
by apwell23 on 3/15/25, 11:13 AM
by nancyminusone on 3/14/25, 5:44 PM
by mclau156 on 3/14/25, 5:59 PM
by linuxftw on 3/14/25, 6:11 PM
The best part is, you won't have to subject your children to marxists and people that look like literal clowns that fell face-first into a tackle box.
by delichon on 3/14/25, 5:34 PM