tandempower

Why do more kids and parents keep foregoing biking/walking to school in order to drive/ride instead? Have you ever seen the traffic congestion that piles up on the way into a school? Do people like it because it gives them more time to spend with their kids in the morning before school? Is it the best excuse for being late to work to say you were stuck in school traffic? Do they like dressing up for school/work in 'Sunday clothes' and then keeping themselves in a refrigerated vehicle instead of biking or walking in the elements? And, if so, Is it worth it?
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...lk-cycle-drops

Chukbacca

I would suspect this happens for a number of reasons including: poor time management and/or walking/cycling not being a priority with the parents...it also has to do with the school's location. After discussing this with numerous friends of mine, I believe that MANY MANY folks do not send their kids to the home school; perhaps the ride would be too long?

Personally, my kids can't ride on their own yet (I have not made it a high enough priority), but I do try to ride with them at least one direction if I go into work late or if I get home in time. I have three girls 7, 5, 3 ...I put one behind me on a tandem, one on a pedal trailer and the last either goes on another pedal trailer or a child carrier.

prathmann

I suspect many parents have directly observed the traffic congestion and confusion in the vicinity of the school and therefore decided that it might be too dangerous to have their own kids walking or biking there. So better to drive them even if doing so adds to the congestion. My bike commute to work passed a few schools and those were the areas where I had the most close calls with parents making U-turns or other sudden unexpected maneuvers after dropping off their kids.

jimincalif

Yeah, big change from when I was a kid in the 60s/70s. Agree on the traffic around schools. I've learned not to go anywhere near a school if I take a weekday morning ride.

wipekitty

Yes...I've observed a lot of drop off/pick up traffic around schools, and find it odd. Back in my day, pretty much everyone walked, rode bikes, or took the BUS. Though the youngest kid I've been responsible for was 10, "my" kids have done the same, regardless of whether we've had a car.

Then again, I'm from the latchkey kid generation, back when it was perfectly acceptable for school age children to come home, fix a snack, and go run around the neighborhood until mom and/or dad got home from work. Good times were had between the candy store and the Community Center photocopy machine.

I've had a few of those commutes as well, and do my best to avoid going by schools during drop off/pick up time.

50PlusCycling

Here in Japan, driving your kids to public schools is prohibited. You can take them on a bike, but they are encouraged to commute to school on their own.

ironwood

Then there are those parents who are afraid of their child being abducted. Unfortunately some kids have been abducted and killed while walking to school. Some parents organize a "walking scool bus", where one or two parents will walk with twenty or so kids.

Another problem is that starting in the mid 1950's, or there about, suburban deveopments were built without sidewalks.

Colnago Mixte

Article talks about the air being too polluted to ride in, in the UK! I live around some of the dirtiest air in the US, in California's central valley. If these people are gonna use "air pollution" as an excuse to stay in cars and create even more of it, I don't know what to say other than "what a bunch of wimps". Do these people think walking or riding a bike in anything but the most pristine alpine air is gonna cause them to drop dead of cancer? Inactivity is a much bigger risk, I would argue.

I'm not normally a person who's fond of more laws, but this whole "driving your kids to school" thing is completely out of control these days, almost like a fad of some sort. I definitely sense some one-up-manship among parents dropping their kids off. Who's got the newest, shiniest Escalade, who's kid is most popular, smartest and best-looking, who's got the prettiest mom, etc., etc. These parents often seem no more self-aware or mature than their damned kids.

I don't have kids, so I can't really relate, all I know is that as a kid I always either walked to school or rode my bike, and would have been humiliated to be seen being dropped off by my parents, or even worse, get picked up after school. I guess it's the opposite these days, the kids who don't get dropped off feel humiliated. Whatever, all I'm saying is that these idiots are slowing down everyone else who are legitimately on the roads trying to get to work on time, and something need to be done about it, similar to what the poster above said is the law in Japan.

wphamilton

I have walked my son to school many times, at first through a rough forest trail (which was later appropriated by the mountain bikers and rendered almost unusuable ) The city developed a portion of the route into the paved Greenway , with a short clear-cut section rising to the back of the school, which made it a lot easier yet even so we were the only ones to ever use that route. In fact, you'd think it was eccentric, dangerous and bordering on abuse given the reactions of some of the parking lot monitors. Taking a bike up to the school rack wasn't worth the hassle, because the arbitrary authoritarians from teachers to the cop would require him to stand in the lobby and wait for their specific instruction to approach his bike, and then deal with Officer Law (his real name) barking at him to get on the sidewalk, and don't dare go anywhere until he allowed. I almost came to blows with Officer Law, after I'd had enough and told him "Just shut up." He did, eventually, if you're curious.

I don't know if is some kind of cultural decay, reverse Darwinism or just the mindset in the local schools, but if parents have to deal with that sort of thing I don't really blame them for driving the kids in.

Colnago Mixte

Watch out for Marshall Law, he's even worse!

I-Like-To-Bike

Is anybody who is car free or wishes to be car free significantly prevented or hindered in that pursuit by other people who choose to drive their children to and from school? If not, why is this subject an LCF issue other than the "LCF" tag has been applied by the OP?

Is so-called "traffic congestion" at school pickup points that big a stumbling block to anyone serious about Living Car Free?

wphamilton

Absolutely. Morning traffic was a nightmare there with the street approaching treated as a parking lot, two in a lane sometimes. Blocking the way through, pulling around each other in dangerous fashion for pedestrians and cyclists. We almost never went by the actual streets because of that. But worse than the drivers, the procedures "designed" (i.e, randomly constructed with no particular logic) to deal with the number of cars going through actively hindered and discouraged anyone not on buses or passenger vehicles.

I-Like-To-Bike

This so-called "nightmare" at school pickup points caused your or anybody else to alter their desire or ability to live carfree? Really?

If "dealing with a number of cars" actively discourages or hinders you or anyone else who wants to walk or ride a bicycle everywhere, what do you suggest is the solution other than that everybody else change their lifestyle to suit your personal preference?

tandempower

That's true. I think the fear of cars is one of the main factors that keeps people driving cars.

Colnago Mixte

That and the fear of pollution. So why not get a giant diesel SUV to drive your kids to school in?

wphamilton

Of course not. It however "significantly prevented or hindered in that pursuit", which was what you DID ask, rather than this silly snark.

wolfchild

I see tons of kids walk to/from school everyday in my neighbourhood...but some parents just choose to drive their kids or have them take a school bus...As usual OP just makes a serious issue out of something that isn't an issue...Every parent has a right to decide how their kids get to school and it's none of OPs business how other parents raise their kids or how other people choose to run their family life...Me personally I spent all of my elementary and high school years walking or biking to school, I was never driven to school not even once.

I-Like-To-Bike

The issue is the pursuit by BF posters of living car free, which as usual is ignored by the OP and in this case by yourself.

tandempower

I wasn't making up any issues. Did you read the article linked in the OP? The thread was started as a way to discuss that article.

I-Like-To-Bike

There are lots of "issues"; there are lots of articles about "issues". None of them become LCF issues or articles about LCF issues just because someone chooses to reference it on this list or attaches an "LCF" label to it.

tandempower

The article is about kids riding their bikes and walking to school less because more parents are driving their kids to school.

Also, have you considered that your negativity isn't relevant to LCF?

I-Like-To-Bike

Which is no more an article about an LCF issue, than an article which discusses the financing of the scooter rental business, or an article about parents driving their children or themselves to bicycling events. Mentioning biking, walking and/or driving does not make any topic an LCF issue just because you include the letters "LCF" somewhere in the post.

tandempower

I don't know what you think LCF is. Those articles have to do with using other modes of transportation besides driving. That's what LCF is.

Mobile 155

Truthfully how kids get to and from school has little to do with them living car free or how they prefer to travel. It has to do with what the school district and the parents dictate. Where I live the principle has total discretion on allowing cycling to school. Because bicycle storage and safety come out of the school budget they have removed the bicycle corals in most of our schools. The parents can send the kids to school on a bus or in some cases let them walk. However once Megan's law passed and the information on predators became available on phone apps the journey to and from school became what looked like a pervert minefield for kids. Then they started to charge $300.00 to $600.00 a year to ride the school bus. Parents started to do the same thing they did with soccer games and parents started dropping off and picking up kids. Does the term Helicopter parent sound familiar?


If 80 to 90 percent of the parents have cars chances are 80 to 90 percent of the kids will be delivered door to door unless they take the bus. In my neighborhood kids still walk if they live within about a half mile. Much farther than that and they catch a ride. The kids aren't given a choice, it doesn't matter what they might want or prefer and even if they could ride a bike it wouldn't be there long when they got ready to ride home. And like I said the principle can prohibit the riding of bikes to their school.

tandempower

I'm surprised no school has gotten sued and/or fires yet if they're prohibiting biking to school. It is a traditional option for kids to ride their bikes to school.