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The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

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Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#91

Post by bombcar »

rattlesnakedave wrote: post #56

Surely behavior of children on a busses plays _some_ role in this decision. Not sure how they would even gather stats on this but busses in my youth were total zoos. Further, schools near me won't allow many children to walk home even within a safe walking distance with parental consent for (and I quote) "liability reasons". Absurd.

You have to enact protection for the schools from that, or their insurance goes insane (or refuses to be available for any money).

Where I am the school line is mainly to prevent kids from running between the cars; anyone who has been authorized can just be let free and walk home - some of whom just walk a block to where their parent is waiting.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#92

Post by nextdoorsv »

nextdoorsv wrote: post #73

Californians should read this too: (TLDR: It's Prop 13's fault) https://www.kqed.org/news/11980715/why-dont-more-bay-area-ki... >California has fewer school buses than in other parts of the country. A survey conducted by the Federal Highway Administration found that nationally, almost 40% of school-aged kids ride a school bus. In California, that number is only 8%. >Like so many questions related to school funding an…

I think people would be surprised that there's school districts where the median home value is $1.5M, but the district can't afford any school bus service except for federally mandated school buses for special ed kids.

For those familiar with the Bay Area - Fremont: https://fremontunified.org/about/business-services/transport...

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#93

Post by RandomBacon »

vidarh wrote: post #62
lvl155 wrote: post #43

Counter point: I used to walk home from school. Got robbed at gun point several times. Jumped for my skin color numerous times. Had a neighborhood buddy who got stabbed three times on his way home and survived. I can go on and on and on. I had to learn to walk an extra 20-30 minutes to avoid these situations. I will never let my kids walk home in 2025. Edit: no one told these parents to drive up for pick up like a dr…

If I lived in the kind of third world hellhole where this was a realistic scenario, I'd leave the country.

Probably just a city, not the whole country.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#94

Post by bongodongobob »

blobbers wrote: post #75

This is the kind of article that needs to get into national culture. We gotta change the way we live. I don't know how to get it to happen, but we need more people doing this.

People need to stop being fucking pussies and actually engage with dumb arguments. It seems people these days are so conflict averse that no one ever speaks up. "We all have our opinions!" Yeah, and sometimes they are stupid.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#95

Post by wat10000 »

alwa wrote: post #41
bongodongobob wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fucking ridiculous.

Normally I’d ding a comment like this as low-effort, but… I honestly can’t think of any more appropriate reaction. I know I’m behind the times, but I was surprised recently when, at an elementary school in the US, they showed me painted lines on the floor of the classroom, indicating the zones out of the line of fire for somebody shooting through the small, jail-like window in the door… apparently they train the babi…

There's no incentive not to take unreasonable precautions.

If something happens and you didn't do everything people imagine could have prevented it, you'll be fired, you'll be sued, and your name will be dragged through the mud.

If you take a bunch of unreasonable precautions and nothing happens, you're fine.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#96

Post by wendyshu »

ainiriand wrote: post #85
mmmlinux wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"he decided" is probably one of the issues here. back in the day it would have been "this is what your doing now kid"

That kind of upbringing worked out really well for the boomers, we are in this mess because of that. Kids should have agency and independence, but also a feeling of safety, trust, and security. You cannot force a kid to work against their own safety instinct because of your own selfish comfort.

Wtf

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#97

Post by aleph_minus_one »

danielbln wrote: post #37
gizajob wrote: post #2

I looked at the author’s Google map view of the 2 miles they couldn’t walk to school, and the enormous grassed area next to the road would have meant I’d be walking that quite happily in the UK.

Yeah, this is much better than the numerous suburbs without sidewalks (such a weird thing from a European perspective) but that country road with ample green space left and right? It's fine. Would benefit from sidewalks and bike lane of course, but the author makes it sound like there is a steep cliff left and right of the road.

> Yeah, this is much better than the numerous suburbs without sidewalks (such a weird thing from a European perspective)

As children in such a situation, we would have a lot of fun as pedestrians to be a nuisance to the cars that drive on the road, too. :-) Having this perspective, I rather think that the reason why sidewalks are built is because of the complaints of car drivers.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#98

Post by lvl155 »

Aurornis wrote: post #67
lvl155 wrote: post #43

Counter point: I used to walk home from school. Got robbed at gun point several times. Jumped for my skin color numerous times. Had a neighborhood buddy who got stabbed three times on his way home and survived. I can go on and on and on. I had to learn to walk an extra 20-30 minutes to avoid these situations. I will never let my kids walk home in 2025. Edit: no one told these parents to drive up for pick up like a dr…

I'm sorry for your experience, but this is extremely location dependent. Walking home from school in many areas is perfectly safe. In other areas it's not. Making blanket statements or restrictions without context doesn't make sense.

So you’re conceding this is location dependent. So in effect you’re saying the article is also location dependent? Pick one. If you knew the statistics on kidnapping or missing children in the US, you would not think of this as a “life-style” choice. By the way, 80% of US population live in urban areas so your experience living in 20% is not representative.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#99

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

newuser94303 wrote: post #70

What about the people that report parents to the police for endangering their children by allowing them to walk/bike to school?

From the article:

> It’s not just a message to parents, it’s the broader society.[...] A mom was recently arrested for letting her 10-year-old son walk into town. These types of incidents only fuel the school car pickup culture

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#100

Post by bombcar »

Mistletoe wrote: post #9

It’s awful. Big long line where I live and it used to be handled by one school bus and kids walking home. Imagine the waste of human productive time, fuel, etc. I’m always astounded this many people don’t have a job to be at at 3pm.

Mayhap part of it is the "modern smoke break" - the people picking up like to have an excuse to take a break from work in the early afternoon.
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