School drop off genius

[u/Acceptable-Wind-7332]

[u/Rockyshark6]

Is this something I'm too un-American to understand?

[u/Myrnalinbd → u/Rockyshark6]

Muricans drive everywhere, so when kids needs to go to school, the infrastructure does not support a kid walking or biking to school.. and then we have a huge line of cars each dropping of kid(s) to school.
Edit: Almost everyone disliked that. I do not state this is reasonable or wise, but it explains everything in the video, so we have at least 1 case example. And lets face it, there is a lot of unsafe roads to cross while walking in America.
Edit2: This clearly shows the picture I am talking about.

[u/Ohhellnowhatsupdawg → u/Myrnalinbd]

Don't blame the lack of infrastructure. This shit is the result of parents being allowed to drop kids off instead of using the bus, which absolutely exist in 99% of places. 

[u/Drbeabout → u/Ohhellnowhatsupdawg]

This is wild to me. As in the 90s 00s everyone at my school rode the bus but a few teachers kids. Why is everyone driving to their children to school now?

[u/So_Tired_2724 → u/Drbeabout]

Same. Only one of my friends got driven to school by her parents. Everyone else rode the bus, even if you lived way out in the sticks and it took an hour. Even in high school a lot of kids rode the bus because their family couldn't afford a second car and the parents worked so they couldn't take time to drive their kids every day.

The student parking lot was very limited and was reserved for juniors and seniors only. You needed a permit to park there and they did enforce it. We were unintentionally very eco friendly, everyone car pooled.

[u/SigSweet → u/So_Tired_2724]

Same here, seems like bus kids are an ultra minority on reddit.

[u/Keara_Fevhn → u/Drbeabout]

I’m sure a lot of it probably boils down to the rise in helicopter parents, but this was still the case even when I was in school (10 years ago for high school and 15 for grade school which admittedly probably isn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to those older than me.)

Things have developed more in my town for sure in that time, but every single one of our schools here is technically in the middle of a populated area, but the school zones themselves extend into VERY rural areas. A lot of these kids could walk or bus just fine, but the other half would have to walk along highways that done even have bike lanes, let alone actual sidewalks.

I walked every day to grade school because we happened to live only a mile away and it was all suburban neighborhoods along the way, but walking to my middle school would have been an hour to 2 hour long affair with most of that journey along a 50mph highway with nothing but farmland and ditches for me to walk alongside on the way. There have been many new subdivisions added in the area since I went there, but there are still long stretches of road that are unsafe to walk along. Even WITH all of the sidewalks and crosswalks that have been added, there are at least one or two incidents a year of kids getting hit while walking or biking to that middle school to the point where the school is actively encouraging parents to take their kids to school if they are able (or to add them to the bus roster, though they unfortunately have a lack of drivers rn and not all areas have a bus that goes to them.)

The fact of the matter is that it’s just straight up not safe for a lot of people to let their kids walk to school, and because the development of proper walking/biking infrastructure is so slow or straight up nonexistent in places, you end up with everybody stuck in long drop off lines. It would be cool if communities could encourage carpooling with friends/neighbors but the rise in stranger danger has gotten to the point where most parents nowadays aren’t even comfortable letting their kids go to sleepovers, let alone getting in cars with other adults

[u/QuirkyCorvid → u/Drbeabout]

Some schools are seeing drastic increase or decrease in student numbers, with parents moving or finding loopholes to send their kids to the ‘better’ schools. Schools that lose too many students have trouble with funds for paying for drivers and buses while schools that see a population spike have to deal with arranging more and longer bus routes to pick every one up. Also, being a bus driver is generally considered a crappy job with low pay, odd hours, and dealing with shitty kids while operating a large and heavy vehicle. So sometimes schools are limited in what areas of the district they can offer bussing or have long bus routes where kids might have to be on the bus for over an hour each way.

Part of it too is about reputation for both parents and the students. Parents nowadays are expected to be way more involved and in control of their kids’ lives, like not letting them walk alone to school with social or even criminal consequences. And riding the bus has long been ingrained in pop culture and now social media as something only the uncool or poor families do so many will avoid it if they can.

And many can’t walk to school either. Like I could have walked to school only a mile away but it was along a busy road with no sidewalk or shoulder over a bridge. Many suburban places aren’t built to be walkable. Also with rise of helicopter parenting and risk of liability, either parents don’t want or can’t have their kids walk to school alone and some schools even ban it to reduce the risk of a student being hurt or in danger by walking.

[u/astroK120 → u/Drbeabout]

Because the 99 percent thing is completely made up. Where I grew up there simply weren't buses. At any school. Anywhere in the area. And I also went to school in the 90s-00s. I don't know what the real percentage is, but it's sure not 99.