Doctor Morbius

Hopefully, there's a special level of Hell for people like that!

Retro Grouch 

Usually the next topic to come up is why kids don't ride their bicycles to school anymore. Before school traffic jams is one good reason.

coffeesnob

I agree but the bus driver needs to take action but I guess you can't say anything to the little darlings these days.

TimothyH

Subdivisions is part of the answer.

Subdivisions have only one way in or out require the use of arterial routes or busy highways to get to stores, schools, churches, parks or other subdivisions.

It is a modern phenomena which has replaced the idea of interconnected neighborhoods and given rise to things like the minivan, and the lines which you mention. There's no way for kids to get to a friend's house without parents driving them and police don't even cruise residential areas any longer.


-Tim-

Retro Grouch 

I think so too. Our suburbs, at least around here, have obviously been designed around the concept of using a car to go everywhere. We are slowly developing a network of multi use trails, but many of them are poorly designed for functional uses like shopping or going to school.

big chainring 

Wow! School bus, school kids, school bus driver hate. I never knew a bunch of school kids in a big yellow vehicle could torment adults so much.

Juan Foote

I bet she would still give me a run for the money.

rachel120

I really hate to be one of those "uphill, in the snow, both ways" people, but when I was going to school the buses wouldn't pick up anyone who lived less than one mile from the school, hardly anyone's parents weren't working and could drive a kid, there were no crossing guards...and yet we survived. Why do today's little precious snowflakes need crossing guards and buses just a few blocks from the school and all this chauffeuring?

Hardrock23

Most all of our neighborhoods are connected. Even our newest ones were made to connect to other new and existing ones. I live along Rt-1 & I-95...Those are the only two main roads going through my town. They have finally started to put sidewalks along Rt-1 these past couple years but they still aren't complete yet. I can get from one side of town to the other with only having to go onto Rt-1 three times...Which would be less than a half mile altogether. They haven't connected the neighborhoods that back up to the water, so I have to get on rt-1 to go over the bridges.

northtexasbiker

Crossing guards have been around for ages. Not every school has them. Ours don't and our neighborhood and school are only a few years old. Our school buses also won't pick up our kids because they are too close (<1mile). We also survived without seatbelts or much vehicle safety in general. No bike helmets either. In fact you would have absolutely no chance at a social life if you wore a bike helmet as a kid where I grew up.

Surviving isn't always the bar you should shoot for. Go ahead and toss your bike helmet in the trash, the odds are still in your favor that you survive.

Juan Foote

Yup, some of the most fun I had as a kid was the walk to school, figuring out how to get there dry in the rain, and generally making trouble in the woods next to school.

Mushroom Head!

Gresp15C

I'm a parent, and I know a lot of parents. This is a dilemma. On the one hand, I don't think that the kids need chauffeuring. On the other hand, it's not my call if it's not my kids.

As for crossing guards, the kids don't need them, but the adults driving cars do. A crossing guard is basically a traffic cop without a badge. My commute goes through one intersection that kids cross on the way to school. Having seen how people drive through that intersection, it needs a crossing guard.

NoPhart

I can relate to getting in the same groove as a bus on a city street. It happened to me for the first time several weeks ago. This transit bus didn’t have stop signs like school buses, but when it’s at the side of the road in the bike lane (which doubles as a legal bus stop); there is no space between it and the other traffic going by.

I ride 5.5 miles on the road with cars in a bike lane to and from a bike only riverbed trail I ride about every other day. It’s by far the worst part of my ride. Several weeks ago I happened to sync up with a city transit bus after it passed me just as I entered an intersection, and then pulled in front of me on the other side of the intersection to stop at the bus stop. He didn’t cut me off, but I did have to stop behind the bus, because there isn’t enough room to pass it on the left side with the other auto traffic. I hit the brakes hard while searching for an escape or work around. None existed, so I stopped behind the bus.

When traffic cleared I went around on its’ left side and continued on. Every time I came to a red light I ended up back in front of the bus, then it would pass me and pull over to stop again. The second time I hit the sidewalk using a driveway with my eMTB with 2.8 Schwalbe Super Moto-X tires; so I can handle the bumps, cracks, driveway curbs, etc… with ease. I went zipping by the bus on the right side via sidewalk before the bus even got its’ door open.

We played this game for the full 5.5 miles! The bus driver never did anything wrong, but it was a big PITA to react and look for escape routes and work arounds. Sometimes there was no traffic or a large gap, so I could pass it on the left side. Other times I had to use the sidewalk when no people where there waiting, other times I had to stop and wait for traffic to clear or the bus to start moving again. It was very frustrating, but again the bus driver did nothing wrong and never cut me off to the point of being a problem. He was just doing his job, and quite well I might add.

I agree with the other posters who said the best thing to do is take a side street to get away from the bus or simply stop and take a water or phone break to let the bus get out of sync with you. It’s the fact that you are synced up with the buses route that causes the frustration.

Then there are the blissful days like today. I exited the bike only trail for my street trek back home on the with traffic bike lane. I only hit one street light in the entire 5.5 miles with about a 22mph pace. I think I traveled those 5.5 miles as fast as the cars on the same street. They’d be sitting at the light as I approached and it would turn green just in time for me to keep pedaling right past all the cars that passed me. I even had one truck pace me. I think he wanted to see how fast I was riding. I had another passenger in a car yell something out the window at me. I have no idea what it was. The whole street light sync ride was uplifting and fun!

It sure made up for the nasty bus sync ride from weeks before. Buses and wide load construction equipment scare the heck out of me when they pass too close and I don’t see or hear them coming.

Today’s only scary moment was when I was watching my display a little too long and got hit in the head by tree branch fern type leaves, only to look up startled and get hit right in the face by other one. Clearly both my fault for not keeping me eyes ahead of me…

Dan Burkhart 

I attended a 2 room rural elementary school that provided no bus service for any of it's students. My walk was one half mile (and it was uphill both ways)
My daily walk ( or bike ride depending on the season) was almost the shortest of any of the kids.
Some had over 2 miles to cover.

rydabent

That bus driver is a classic example of a person with a little authority flaunting his position.

Retro Grouch 

So tell me rydabent, where did you hear the driver's side of the story? Might be true but I'd like to hear the other side before forming such a conclusion.

molten

Don't you just hate any legal/political issue having to do with children? As (for decades) society DOES OVER_SYMPATHIZE TO ANY ISSUES HAVING TO DO WITH CHILDREN. Nowadays, add pets into this.
It is a human sickness, Blamed to the media for much of this -- from their tv reporting. Be it (a) especially on-scene emergencies; (b) general news. Rather than 'balanced news.'