wolfchild

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...walk-bike.html

gerv 

That's a good story. But the answer is clearly that the kids spend too much time in cars because their parent do. If a child sees that the parents are willing to walk a kilometer, they are more likely to do the same.

Artkansas 

28% of the kids walk to school. It's a drop, but I'm not aware that kids in the U.S. still do this.

wolfchild

I remember my elementary school and high school days very well. I have never been driven to school by my parents. It was always a walk or a bike ride for me. My high school was a 25 minute bike ride and many times I would walk instead of riding, and I still found time and energy to practice martial arts when I got home from school. I also didn't own any video games or a computer. Internet and social media didn't exist yet. All I could think of was to go outside and be physically active, it was a way of life for me..and still is. This younger generation is becoming soft and lazy.

Dahon.Steve

People can't let their kids walk to school anymore. I used to walk to to school at 7 years old but that was back in the eary 1970's. Today, it's against the law to have latch key children let alone have them walk to school. You kids have to be aleast 12 years old or you risk getting arrested.

B. Carfree

In Washington State, the state is no longer going to fund bus transportation for any child who lives within a mile of a school if that mile is determined to be adequately safe to walk. The walking is starting this Spring.

I'm not sure how they're going to make it ten times as long, uphill both ways and under eight feet of snow and/or in 120F temperatures, but it's a start.

kmv2

It seems idiotic, but most people don't realize the ease with which they can get around on their own power. Children especially, as they are learning from their parents, peers and others.

kmv2

That's how we got to school!!

Actually, I was 20+km from school, I grew up very rural.. so I was always on a bus. But I walked about 1km to a bus stop hehe.

...said every older generation to every younger generation ever.

rica rica

in my neighborhood (a city neighborhood less than 1/2 mile from the school) the buses stop at EVERY house there is a child. There are sidewalks and plenty of space for them to at leat walk to a stop every block, or for that matter they should be walking to school anyway.

and they should pipe down. and get off my lawn. and stop listening to that ipod. and don't text at dinner.
rant over

dynodonn 

I can see more children being driven to school than in years past, in our locale alone there have been a number of school closures and reduced/combined bus travel due to cost cutting measures, making school travel distances further, and making parents to opt in driving their children to school.

Roody

A lot of schools are being closed down because the current crop of kids is a small one (lower birth rates) and because of revenue losses at all levels of government. This means that kids really do have further to go to get to school.

kmv2

I didn't even realize people got "driven" to school until recently.. from parents complaining about the detour/responsibility of driving their kids to school.
Uhh, the kids can walk or take the bus?

I-Like-To-Bike

What event occurred recently that alerted you to a situation that has existed for the last 30 years or so, that anyone who has a child or knows anyone already is aware?

dynodonn 

My parents drove me to school and had a relative pick me up during the years that I was too young to stay at home unsupervised, plus the school that I went to did not have bus service. The same treatment was given to my children during the same age group as well.

rica rica

i didn't either. I recently found out a coworker whose kids bus stops in her apartment parking lot still drives the kid to school. With gas prices especially i can;t imagine making two extra trips a day.

Roody

In our car centered society, many schools are located on or near busy highways that just aren't safe for any pedestrians, especially children. It would be dangerous for children to even ride bikes to many schools. Many school districts have also cut or eliminated crossing guards, safety patrols, and the like. There are about three times more cars on the roads than there were when I walked to school 50 years ago.

Many parents and educators would like to see safe street conditions so that kids at least have the option to ride bikes or walk to school. For more information, go to Safe Routes to School.

kmv2

Doesn't happen in rural communities too often. I grew up taking the school bus, and being driven to school was certainly a luxury. My babysitter was (despite the sparseness of rural Canada) relatively close by, so we could walk.
I was aware kids get driven from time to time, but I was unaware of the extent of the epidemic until seeing suburban schools when I was doing a contract for various school boards. Literally huge lineups of cars dropping kids off.
Honestly quite shocking considering how easy it would be for most of the kids to walk or for the school board to organize a bus pickup.
I suppose its a combination of parents being to cheap to pay for daycare services, or for their lack of daycare services, or because they don't know their neighbours/lack of community in the burbs (or babysitter was a neighbour and we learned of her services at a community bulletin board).

None of my friends have school age kids yet, none of my coworkers really have either (I usually am working in a small company). I avoid the burbs at all costs, so not exposed to it too much.

fietsbob

TV stations run how many ads for cars in a given Week? its a propaganda campaign .

teach them media literacy, so they are skeptical

Booger1

My parents worked for a living,they couldn't drive us to school.There were no lines of cars at schools when I was a kid,you went to the school by your house......now the kids don't even have to be from your city!

When I was in school,they had lots of bicycle racks....all empty! Nobody rode a bicycle to school,the kids would tease you to no end.You either took the bus or walked.

Parents/society are to overprotective of children these days,you have to let them make mistakes or they will never learn anything.....except the world treats me like my Mom.....their going to have a rude awakening.

If you keep telling a kid fire is hot,fire is hot but if they never burn themselves....they don't know what hot is.You could lite a match and touch them with an ice cube and they'll think they got burnt.

bragi

This is just the way it is for many school-age kids across North America. I'm a teacher in a pretty well off urban middle school. My school is not near a major highway, most students live within 5 miles (8 Km) of the school, and it's a pretty safe part of the city. Some students do walk, but the vast majority of them are driven to and from school by their parents. Maybe 10 students out of 400 ride their bikes to school. I've actually seen kids who live eight blocks from school wait 20 minutes or more for a parent to pick them up. It's not laziness. It's not even fear on the part of parents. To a certain extent, it's driven (no pun intended) by parents' need to be in control beyond an age which is appropriate. (Believe it or not, some people like driving their kids all over creation.) Mostly, though, it's just the result of kids' schedules. They're usually not going home after school. They're going to soccer practice, or a tutoring session, or a four-hour gymnastics session, or some form of community service. These kids have a full schedule, and their stressed-out moms are not about to allow them to be late for any of it. Walking, riding, or public transit just isn't going to do it when you have this many places to be in such a short time. Kids today have far less unscheduled/unsupervised time than they used to; the days of riding around the neighborhood on your bike, randomly visiting friends, or getting into some sort of mischief, are long gone.

Baytree

I feel like such an old lady saying this... but I biked 9 miles uphill every morning to get to school. And I'm only 21 - take that, statistics!

Really though, the area I grew up in was pretty spread out. It would've taken most kids at least an hour to walk to school if not longer, and that's unrealistic. The bus system was awful and also you had to pay several hundred dollars a year to take the school bus or rely on the slower-than-walking public transit system. So until they start putting schools closer to where the kids live or set up a better bus system I don't think it's fair to complain about it being the parent's fault.

Ekdog

I grew up in San Diego County in the 1960s. There were yellow school buses that took us to and from the junior and senior high schools, which were about four miles away from my house. Do these no longer exist?

dynodonn 

They still do, but considerably less in numbers. I just checked our local school bus schedule, I was amazed that one bus now does the same route as what took four buses when I was going to school, and the one bus does only one combined stop in my old neighborhood whereas before it made several. With only one combined stop, it makes for a longer distance to travel to get to the bus, and only one chance to make the bus.

Roody

And lots of parents drive their kids to the bus stop, then sit there with the motor running so their precious cargo doesn't get cold while waiting for the bus..

Roody

One theory is that birth rates are going down. Parents typically have only one or two children. With fewer kids, they unconsciously view each one as being especially rare and precious. Therefore they are willing to sacrifice a lot of their own comfort and convenience in the service of their youngsters. This phenomenon was first observed in China, where one child families have been mandated for an entire generation now.