Why do people drive their kids to public schools when adequate bus service is provided?
11.June, 2009
My husband commutes 25 miles each way from a rural area outside of Huntsville, AL to a job in the city. On weekdays when school is not in session the roads aren't particularly crowded so his commute only takes about 25 minutes. When school is in session the trip can take him up to 45 minutes. Most of the extra traffic he sees on the road are parents with one or two kids in their cars, pulling into PUBLIC schools. Its the same way all over the county. When we rented a place in the city my husband's 10 minute commute could take up to 30 minutes due to the congestion on the roads from school traffic. We've talked to neighbors who have kids and they say the bus service isn't bad around here so I don't know why people are wasting time and money driving their kids to school.
I say that its a real waste of resources to drive your kids to school if they go to a school that offers a decently efficient bus service. The bus is going to run anyway so why not use it? Before my parents took me out of public school to homeschool me I rode the bus every day. They figured why waste their gas if the school district will provide transportation for free. My husband also rode the bus to school and he turned out fine. Its not like kids are harmed significantly by riding the bus.
These parents are causing a major hassle to commuters who have no other option but to drive to work. There's no public transportation outside of the center of the city of Huntsville. Carpooling is also not practical for him because the software engineering firm he works for only has 20 employees, none of whom live in the same area of the region. He rides a motorcycle to work to save gas so the extra traffic also causes an increased safety risk to him and the several other motorcycle commuters in our area.
We live outside of the city because housing is significantly cheaper thus allowing us to achieve the dream of owning our own home. It seems like parents are teaching their kids the wrong thing from an environmental and personal economical standpoint by driving them to school when they don't have too.
By the way, I'm a full-time homemaker and I only drive my 1992 Pontiac Bonneville 1 or 2 times a week to run errands. Otherwise, I stay at home making repairs and improvements to our 1500 square foot, 20 year old rancher.
You are so right. I live really only three blocks from the high school and two blocks from the elementary schools. The kids never walk. The parents clog the streets and it is very congested. We can not get around this community for one hour in the AM and again between 2:15 and 3p.m. because of the traffic. Now, being that this is Southern California, I really do not understand why the kids can't walk home. I survived just fine using the bus and walking when I was a kid.
p.s: The only time I ever picked her up was after the earthquake, during the fires when we were being evacuated and during the El Nino storms when the streets were actually flooded and dangerous. other than that, what is it with this?
11.June, 2009 um 8:14 pm
fear.
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11.June, 2009 um 8:28 pm
Honestly? Living in Atlanta, I've come to notice a few things.
I used to be a route driver, and would see a lot of kids getting on buses, and a lot of kids also being driven to school.
The ones being driven? Nice looking cars, usually coming from nice homes.
My guess, these are the people that have bought into the idea that their child is incredibly special, more than any other child out there. Because that's what society has been force feeding parents for years.
Which makes their child too special to ride the bus with other students.
There's no practical explanation, and it's certainly not cheap for them.
It's a lot of stay-at-home wives, with nothing else to do, but drive their BMWs to school and impress the other stay-at-home wives.
Absolutely ridiculous. And it just makes traffic around schools that much worse.
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On a daily basis, I passed by several schools, and would be stuck for half an hour at each one, waiting on moms in their BMWs, mercedes, SUVs that they don't need, etc….to pick up one student each.
11.June, 2009 um 9:08 pm
mommy, I don't want to ride the bus, nerds ride the bus.
ok son, instead of being your mom and teacher, I will be your best friend and drive you there instead so you are not a nerd.
loss of basic parental morals.
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11.June, 2009 um 9:30 pm
Some parents feel safer (or they don't trust their kids) transporting their children to school themselves
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11.June, 2009 um 9:56 pm
Amen! I couldn't agree more. Worse yet is trying to drive near a school on a rainy day. Parents will double, and triple park directly in front of the school gates. Heaven forbid that precious little "Johnny" or "Susie" should get more than three drops of rain on them on their walk to the car.
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11.June, 2009 um 10:12 pm
The bus station could be far away. Or maybe some kids are not as comfortable as riding the bus as others. Hope this helps.
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Me
11.June, 2009 um 10:59 pm
I spent my childhood living in a small town with no high schools, so had to travel just under 25Km to the nearest big town so I could go to high-school (for 7 years).
I considered myself lucky, I had access to a school bus service which took me to the front of the school.
Granted it was just the one bus leaving the small town (ie no sleeping in allowed!) & I had to walk just under 1Km from my house to catch it. But it was free & it did the job.
My stay-at-home mum (whom had a part-time job during the day), would not pamper me by driving me to the bus stop, let alone the school every day.
And on the few occasions I missed it in the mornings, she was not that happy about driving me into the next town.
It's probably different for those in the city, with more traffic & less distance to cover, therefore making it easier to find an excuse to drive their children around everywhere.
But if possible, it's good to let them make use of school buses, because it teaches them that they can't rely on their parents for everything & allows them some independence.
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11.June, 2009 um 11:41 pm
I live in the Phoenix area, so we don't have "bad" weather here. I see parents driving their kids to school who live within easy walking distance, like a street or two away. I made my kids walk or ride the bus. I do live in a fairly upscale neighborhood.
I think it's fear of predators. This isn't the same America I grew up in.
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11.June, 2009 um 11:52 pm
Probably because some parents worry that the bus driver may possibly be a secret paedophile.
You can't trust anyone these days!
Parents want to ensure that their child actually reaches school safely even if it means clogging up the road traffic.
Truanting can be a problem too.
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12.June, 2009 um 12:10 am
You are so right. I live really only three blocks from the high school and two blocks from the elementary schools. The kids never walk. The parents clog the streets and it is very congested. We can not get around this community for one hour in the AM and again between 2:15 and 3p.m. because of the traffic. Now, being that this is Southern California, I really do not understand why the kids can't walk home. I survived just fine using the bus and walking when I was a kid.
p.s: The only time I ever picked her up was after the earthquake, during the fires when we were being evacuated and during the El Nino storms when the streets were actually flooded and dangerous. other than that, what is it with this?
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12.June, 2009 um 12:51 am
They are paranoid.
Sometimes it's justified, and sometimes it isn't. But my opinion is that kids over the age of 10 should be allowed to take the bus or walk to school on their own in most parts of the country.
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12.June, 2009 um 1:37 am
two words. John Walsh.
Every parent can feel for his horrible tragedy. But what we can't feel for is his self-absorbed response: spending 20 years spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt, making himself a celebrity, and making millions of dollars convincing every parent that stranger abduction is a greater threat to their child than being hit by lightning.
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12.June, 2009 um 2:11 am
There are lots of possible answers.
Fear of the chaos and bullying on the bus. Fear of bad bus drivers. Fear of too much time around "bad influences", around kids who are bored and get into too much trouble during the long drive on the bus.
Sometimes bus riders get to school late often, so riding the bus lessens their education. Other times, they get to school more than an hour early and have to hang around for an hour after school–and that time doesn't include the time then spent on the bus; so there is a lot of wasted time, a lot of time to get into trouble, a lot of time that may not have adequate supervision.
Schools are much worse now than they were a decade or two ago. Riding the bus years ago was probably not as bad an experience as it is now–at least that's the case in our area of the country.
You can't just blame the traffic on parents. You could blame the schools for not having smaller, more local schools–schools that kids could walk to. Or people who won't carpool because they'll have to step outside of their comfort zone and find someone who works at a different company down the street. Or the people who choose to live far from where they work. Or….
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12.June, 2009 um 2:39 am
The school I went to was walking distance from my house, so I walked.
My best friend right through primary to secondary school however was "not allowed" to walk or take the bus. The apparent reasons-
- Her mum was scared if she walked, she would get abducted, bullied, robbed, hit by a car or skip school.
- Her mum didn't want her to take the bus because the bus stop was 3 blocks away. Again, she wasn't allowed to walk to get there, and if the mum drove her to bus stop, she 'may as well drive the rest of the way'.
She also didn't like the local school bus driver, who was often seen going 10-20K over the speed limit.
In fact, to me, who would be waiting at the front of the school for my friend to arrive, it would be a game to see if the bus driver would take the corner so fast again that he would hit the bus stop sign on the footpath. Game ended when he'd knocked the sign flat so many times they removed it.
She was worried her daughter would also get bullied on the bus, would not find a spare seat, or 'get in with the wrong crowd'.
The bus would also not pick up students from the school until an hour after school was over. Plenty of time for 'bad stuff' to happen.
Personally, if I ever have a kid and live within 20 minutes of a school, I would probably drive the kid to school. If I lived further away, it would be the bus.
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