We walked and biked even skied to school in the winter. Some kids had quite the journey. Now my nephew is 8 and and there are like 20 cars waiting in front of the school, or the closest they can drive. They also complained that it’s pretty dangerous because of all the traffic, not realising that they are the traffic. No car would be there without them. It’s madness.
If only there were free public transport provided to every student outside a small radius of the school. That would make things so much simpler!
Just gonna throw this out there, while yes car=bad and carbrain is real, sometimes its just administrative bullshit that fails to consider the realities of their student’s and/or parents’ needs and living situations.
When my kids started school, because my youngest is special needs and other specifics they both started around the same time in different grades. For the majority of the student body my town’s school district will simply bus between different schools plus a couple of specific designated points so that everyone who lives within city limits is within about half a mile of a place that the buses pick up and drop off. They require a parent/guardian present at pickup time for 3k-Kindergarten bus pickup and dropoff. For students in special ed they instead get to take the special ed bus which has extra staff and seatbelts and only picks up and drops off at the home and also requires a parent/guardian present. Both do pickups and dropoffs at about the same time. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
Since my wife has been a stay at home mom (primarily due to daycare costs exceeding what she would realistically make) and can’t be in 2 places at once[1]^ we were forced to do our own pickups and dropoffs instead of bussing. I’m sure there’s similar levels of bullshit if your kids are in different grades putting them at different schools because the local school administrators seem to be really good at not fully thinking things through like that and usually require experiencing the consequences of their actions to change course on a decision
You’re describing an exception, which is of course real and necessary. The vast majority of a school pickup line is simply carbrain and some vague “mama bear” bullshit.
I was going to say we don’t know for sure why so many parents choose to drive their kids, but it turns out after a quick Google that there has been at least one study into this matter, and it seems a large portion of the surveyed respondents can be attributed to carbrain (vague “stranger danger” and “risk of bullying” as listed reasons, which the bullying risk may be real or perceived but that’s hard to empirically determine) but also a significant number drive their kids due to “traffic danger” indicating that it is poor road design pushing a significant portion of parents to choose to perform school pickups and dropoffs by car. And most of the remainder drive their kids to and from school out of “social convenience” (which is probably where my specific instance falls) so based on this one study based on a survey of almost 300 parents we could actually reduce the number of cars in those lines by a significant portion by making other options than driving more convenient for parents, but a large number state they’re primarily concerned about pedestrian safety which is more of an infrastructure challenge than a direct “car brain” challenge
I really wish I was better at reading studies because that is some fascinating data that I’d love to play with some more and see what other conclusions I could tease out of it
Back in my day, the early to mid 90s, there were still pickups. There was a shorter line, it was easier, because there were fewer people.
Where I live now, and where I lived then, there was cutoffs for the bus, like a mile or more. My town now, barely anyone is a mile from anything. There’s one bus for the school, and they use it for underprivileged and disabled students. Everyone else is on their own, and so if you live a mile from school, having your four or five year old walk sometimes isn’t feasible.
We live about a mile from school. I drive halfway and park and we walk the other half, because I cannot stand the pickup line. But some people go, drop their kid, and head to work, and so it’s completely understandable that they use the pickup line.
If only there were free public transport provided to every student outside a small radius of the school. That would make things so much simpler!
Seriously, I can’t wrap my head around this. Back in my day, pickup lines simply didn’t exist. You walked or you took the bus.
We walked and biked even skied to school in the winter. Some kids had quite the journey. Now my nephew is 8 and and there are like 20 cars waiting in front of the school, or the closest they can drive. They also complained that it’s pretty dangerous because of all the traffic, not realising that they are the traffic. No car would be there without them. It’s madness.
Just gonna throw this out there, while yes car=bad and carbrain is real, sometimes its just administrative bullshit that fails to consider the realities of their student’s and/or parents’ needs and living situations.
When my kids started school, because my youngest is special needs and other specifics they both started around the same time in different grades. For the majority of the student body my town’s school district will simply bus between different schools plus a couple of specific designated points so that everyone who lives within city limits is within about half a mile of a place that the buses pick up and drop off. They require a parent/guardian present at pickup time for 3k-Kindergarten bus pickup and dropoff. For students in special ed they instead get to take the special ed bus which has extra staff and seatbelts and only picks up and drops off at the home and also requires a parent/guardian present. Both do pickups and dropoffs at about the same time. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
Since my wife has been a stay at home mom (primarily due to daycare costs exceeding what she would realistically make) and can’t be in 2 places at once[1]^ we were forced to do our own pickups and dropoffs instead of bussing. I’m sure there’s similar levels of bullshit if your kids are in different grades putting them at different schools because the local school administrators seem to be really good at not fully thinking things through like that and usually require experiencing the consequences of their actions to change course on a decision
citation needed ↩︎
You’re describing an exception, which is of course real and necessary. The vast majority of a school pickup line is simply carbrain and some vague “mama bear” bullshit.
I was going to say we don’t know for sure why so many parents choose to drive their kids, but it turns out after a quick Google that there has been at least one study into this matter, and it seems a large portion of the surveyed respondents can be attributed to carbrain (vague “stranger danger” and “risk of bullying” as listed reasons, which the bullying risk may be real or perceived but that’s hard to empirically determine) but also a significant number drive their kids due to “traffic danger” indicating that it is poor road design pushing a significant portion of parents to choose to perform school pickups and dropoffs by car. And most of the remainder drive their kids to and from school out of “social convenience” (which is probably where my specific instance falls) so based on this one study based on a survey of almost 300 parents we could actually reduce the number of cars in those lines by a significant portion by making other options than driving more convenient for parents, but a large number state they’re primarily concerned about pedestrian safety which is more of an infrastructure challenge than a direct “car brain” challenge
I really wish I was better at reading studies because that is some fascinating data that I’d love to play with some more and see what other conclusions I could tease out of it
Back in my day, the early to mid 90s, there were still pickups. There was a shorter line, it was easier, because there were fewer people.
Where I live now, and where I lived then, there was cutoffs for the bus, like a mile or more. My town now, barely anyone is a mile from anything. There’s one bus for the school, and they use it for underprivileged and disabled students. Everyone else is on their own, and so if you live a mile from school, having your four or five year old walk sometimes isn’t feasible.
We live about a mile from school. I drive halfway and park and we walk the other half, because I cannot stand the pickup line. But some people go, drop their kid, and head to work, and so it’s completely understandable that they use the pickup line.