@ Getting to school - bus vs. private car

[eddy]

Our school district does not provide bussing unless you are 2+ miles from school. Because of the condensed nature of our location of schools barely anyone qualifies. So most kids get to school by private transportation, city bus or walking. 

Thankfully we were smart and bought a house that our kids could walk to all three schools. Best decision we ever made. We didn't even fully realize at the time how valuable it would be. 

[eddy]

I was also a rural kid which meant I was on the bus for 1.5-2 hours a day. First one on and last one off lol!
I never understood why we got the short end of the stick on that one. My mom refused to drive us and I now get it. She got a solid 30 minutes in the morning to get ready for work on her own. And then in the afternoon the bus was essentially our after school care. We got home maybe 30 minutes before she got home.

I also had a school permit by 14 since I was in after school activities. It is wild to think of my dumbass driving on rural roads at 14. My son just turned 16 and I am now realizing how much my parents just had to sort of push the anxiety out of their brain and let me get that school permit. I don't even let my 16 year old driver drive on the highway yet lol. And we are unique that we even let our 16 year old get a license! Very different times from how I grew up. 

[whattheheck]

My school district is 115 square miles and offers bussing for everyone. Except they don’t have enough drivers and ended up consolidating routes. Which somehow ended up with most routes being longer (but less than six hours for drivers) and some routes being shorter (so the number of routes that gave drivers 6+ hours was reduced). Since only drivers that have 6+ hours get benefits - and routes are picked based on seniority - many drivers that lost their benefits (district refused to grandfather them in) quit. So more routes were combined - but not in a manner that got drivers benefits.

My kid attends out of district. A 20 minute drive by car. If she took the bus it would pick her up at 8am, take her to the HS for a transfer bus and the transfer bus would stop at her program last at 810-815. Problem being her school starts at 800. But she’s an out of district student so district doesn’t give a shit. She gets dismissed at 240. Bus comes at about 3p but heaven forbid you’re waiting inside bc it’s freezing cold and you’ll miss the bus bc there’s no announcement bc it’s after dismissal times. If she does catch the bus at 3p she’s home at about 430 (again with a transfer bus at the HS).

It’s a shit show all around. On the other hand. The rule is she has to keep her headphones out and actually talk to me during the drive. Which is not an immutable rule - some days we each have reasons for having a conversation free ride and just need the quiet. It’s not convenient - I have to drop her off way early so I can get to work on time but she much prefers that to being late to first period everyday.

[penguingrrl]

Feb 20, 2024 11:28:19 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Feb 20, 2024 11:21:49 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Oof... That's so much time out of the day!

I am glad a bus exists for kids without other options, but that should never be the planned daily commute IMO! Especially for the public school your are zoned to attend.

Welcome to middle of nowhere NE where schools consolidate for one big ass county. Rural kids I have no quibbles over people driving to their schools. Although kids upwards of 5 miles out would ride their bikes in on the dirt roads. In NE you can start driving to school when you're 14. Many kids start driving to help out their families as soon as they can reach the peddles.

Whoa, 14?!?!?! I always forget how young kids can drive in other states! You can’t get a full drivers license in NJ until you’re 18. At 17 you can get a probationary license (which has some very good legal limits on when you can drive and restricts you to a single passenger).

[wawa]

Feb 19, 2024 19:12:00 GMT -5 abs said:

Feb 19, 2024 18:55:01 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I wonder what would happen if we started talking about cars like we do guns.

We all have cars because we're scared what happens to us when we don't have our cars.

It's the cars. It's the guns.

Maybe but it’s also the infrastructure and funding. If DD walked to school she would walk 3 miles, cross a busy 4 lane road with a 50 mph speed limit where there are daily accidents from red light runners (it’s the phones), and there are no side walks for half of it. For high school add another mile plus train tracks. Nope. Would be nice to utilize the buses but again there isn’t enough space to accommodate instruments. Now that I think about it no one in band or orchestra takes the bus unless you play like flute.

These are all things that could be fixed of course. Better transportation options and more funding. But to say it’s the cars isn’t really fair in this case.

but it is the cars.  we have that infrastructure because of the cars.

we started building bigger roads to fit more cars, which forced more people into driving because you can't walk or bike with those big roads, so then we need even bigger roads. And then we have all these big roads going through all these places, so people can live further and further from everything, because it's "just a 10 min drive" so our land use patterns in most places outside older city and town cores are impossible to walk or bike around anyway, so then even more people drive cars everywhere.
and now vehicle manufacturers are making bigger and bigger cars and people are buying bigger and bigger cars because they need room for the hockey carpool and they dont' feel safe surrounded by all the OTHER big cars in a little sedan, so then people get even bigger cars, which are even less safe for everyoen outside the car, so even fewer people are able to safely walk or bike.....
and THEN you add in the literal cultural aspects of car use and ownership in the US where people think taking the bus is low class, people selling things think that the only market worth having are the folks arriving by car, cars are status symbols and security blankets and safe places and everybody thinks that it's perfectly normal and expected to be able to store a car for free on public property and that every person over the age of 16 in a household needs their own and also speed limits are suggestions.

 It all boils down to the cars at the end of the day, so in the same way that our gun violence issues are ALSO lots of other things (lack of mental health care, toxic masculinity, lack of community, blah blah blah) at the end of the day...it's the guns.  And the cars. 

I mean....for kids guns only recently overtook vehicle crashes as most common cause of accidental death.  They're both up there.  And it's way way worse here than most other developed countries.  The two issues have more in common than most people realize.  www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/health/us-children-gun-deaths-dg/index.html

[pixy0stix]

I knew Wawa would take this journey with me, lol!

[chedifuen]

It's so interesting to read about how districts function. I just assumed that most were like ours!

Our kids were walkers in elementary, we lived close to a mile from the school and only had to cross one road, which did have a crosswalk. Limited sidewalks but that's fairly standard in my neighborhood and the roads are pretty quiet. I worked from home their entire childhood and walking them to and from school was my favorite part of the day. I miss it.

In middle and high school they are on the bus, we're only about 2 miles from the schools but the route isn't walkable due to expressways. My oldest drives himself now, he's a junior.

[outnumbered]

My kids started walking to and from elementary school in second grade. The only thing that made it unsafe was assholes that didn't shovel their sidewalks in the winter. They biked or walked to middle school which gave me pause because one road is very narrow and was not designed to handle the amount of traffic that now consumes it. I would love the addition of sidewalks on that road. wawa how can get started advocating for sidewalks on a road?

[wawa]

Feb 20, 2024 15:04:37 GMT -5 outnumbered said:

My kids started walking to and from elementary school in second grade. The only thing that made it unsafe was assholes that didn't shovel their sidewalks in the winter. They biked or walked to middle school which gave me pause because one road is very narrow and was not designed to handle the amount of traffic that now consumes it. I would love the addition of sidewalks on that road. wawa how can get started advocating for sidewalks on a road?

first step is figuring out who owns the road. Depending on where you are it could be the state, county, city, all the way down to a wee little township if you're somewhere like PA that slices and dices their land into the smallest of municipal bodies.

And then to start you just reach out and tell them you want a sidewalk and where you want it. If it's a state, city or county level they probably have at the very least a dedicated "submit a request" email if not an online system, if it's a smaller level of government you just need to figure out the contact info for the head of Public Works or the Roads Dept or Streets or Transportation Division or whatever they call it where you are. Send them a picture or two of the road, a google streetview link and/or a good description of the section you're talking about. Tell them kids walk to school on it.

And then (this is where it stops being easy) you will probably be told no. Or you might be told "ok, but we don't have money right now" So you keep asking.
And keep poking and keep following up. Send another email asking for explanations and understanding of the process. Ask their boss. Ask their boss's boss.
Find an advocacy group who cares about this stuff and join them to advocate for the bigger picture (as well as your little sidewalk) Get a totally unrelated group to join you in bugging (PTA? Boosters? HOA?). Get the people who live on that stretch of road on board. Get a local elected official to join you in bugging on this topic. (that's usually REALLY helpful especially if you got told "we could but no funding"). Emails to county/city level electeds can get a lot done. Ask for reasons why not. Ask for follow-up. Ask for explanations, and then tell them why their explanations are stupid. (this may require some research on your part. happy to help) Go to public meetings on CIP/CTP priorities and sign up to speak on the importance of closing sidewalk gaps. Get other people to come with you and say the same thing. Show up to public meetings for other projects nearby and ask why the project can't include closing sidewalk gaps. Be annoying. BE REALLY ANNOYING. Get in the local paper saying really reasonable things like, "kids need a safe space to walk to school and that should be a priority!"

I used to work on a contract for an agency where one of our tasks was responding to citizen submitted issues, and they literally had a color coding system to the filing system so that submittals from people who made pests of themselves were a red (electeds were blue) and got responded to faster (blue was fastest). Aspire to be a Red Folder. You do however much of that you have the time and energy for, but even if it's been aaaaages since the last time they blew you off and you lost heart for the thing, if you think of it and have the energy - just come roaring back out of nowwhere and be like, "hey...remember me? Tell me again why our kids have to walk in the street?" Find out of there is a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program at the school/county/state level and reach out to those folks. If not - see if you can get enough people interested to start one! guide.saferoutesinfo.org/steps/

And feel free to PM me if you get back an answer that gets all engineery and jargony about why they can't do what you're asking.

How much advocacy you'll need to do is really going to depend on where you are and how they've set up their priorities. If you're somewhere like where pixy0stix lives, it's just a matter of getting on the implementation list and it'll happen eventually because fixing pedestrian network gaps is a high priority item. If you're somewhere not like that...it might take a hot minute and you'll have to do every bit of what I rambled above.

If you get told there isn't funding, ask if they have unspent SRTS SAFETY-LU funds. Ask if they've considered a SSFA grant. Look at your local CIP/CTP budget (capitol project budget) and see what is getting funding and let that guide your next round of advocacy.

If you feel comfortable feel free to PM me where you're at and I can give you more specific suggestions. Because local roads are locally controlled, the exact process is going to depend on where you're at. But the general approach is the same - find a starting ear. Ask. Ask again. Ask who else you can ask. And just be a professional pest till somebody tells you yes. Because there's really very very few reasons for a real no when it comes to something like a sidewalk on a local road near a school.

some good tips here: pedestrianspace.org/12-days-of-pedestrian-advocacy-tips/
Even the federal gov't wants you to have a sidewalk: highways.dot.gov/sites/fhwa.dot.gov/files/2022-06/residents_guide2014_final.pdf

[scm1011]

Feb 19, 2024 11:53:32 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Every time someone mentions cold weather and having to walk, I think about the kid in my neighborhood who rides his unicycle to school about a mile in whatever weather it is that day.

Yeah I don't get the bad weather argument. We're in Boston and walk to school in ALL weather. It's cold or snowy? Layer up; my kids often wear snow pants to school. It's raining? rain boots + umbrellas do the trick. If my 4 year old can do it, I imagine most people can manage.

And like a PP said, the walk to/from school with them is actually one of my favorite times of day. Also on the legs I walk solo I get to listen to audiobooks/podcasts. Win win.

[picksthemusic]

Our SD provides buses. Both my kids ride the bus and have since K. Until one of them starts driving, they'll take the bus.

I only drive them/pick them up if something else is going on like an appt or something. I hate it when I have to go at drop/pick because it's so freaking disorganized and takes forever.

[wawa]

Feb 20, 2024 14:44:42 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I knew Wawa would take this journey with me, lol!

I've BEEN on this journey with you.  
It's actually been a struggle over the years not to draw this parallel the other way because after a mass shooting event nobody wants to hear how I think this is all the exact same issue as how little we care about people walking and biking.

A huge huge difference from a policy POV being that the feds are TOTALLY on board with building multimodal infrastructure.  It's the state governments on down who can't get out of their own way. So once you get local government on board, things can really start changing. With Guns you're fighting an uphill battle with the whole ass constitution and supreme court in your way, so all the local advocacy in the world can only do so much.

[Scout'sHonor]

We live literally across the street, so we walk her over no matter the weather. She's in K, so we'll walk with her a few years and then let her go on her own when we feel ok with it. I'd say it's 50% walkers from the three surrounding neighborhoods and 50% drive/drop from those that choiced in (if you choice to a different school than your neighborhood, you don't get bussing).

[pixy0stix]

Speaking to how to get things done and where I live - Regular every day citizens are VERY HIGHLY invested and involved in the local government. I've been to meetings with other municipalities and it's always commented on. Same with people who move here to work for the City, it's one of the first things they say, "Wow, people are highly involved here aren't they?"

I think a lot of people don't realize just how much one persistent voice can do in local government.

[jaylea]

Feb 20, 2024 16:18:50 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Feb 19, 2024 11:53:32 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Every time someone mentions cold weather and having to walk, I think about the kid in my neighborhood who rides his unicycle to school about a mile in whatever weather it is that day.

Yeah I don't get the bad weather argument. We're in Boston and walk to school in ALL weather. It's cold or snowy? Layer up; my kids often wear snow pants to school. It's raining? rain boots + umbrellas do the trick. If my 4 year old can do it, I imagine most people can manage.

And like a PP said, the walk to/from school with them is actually one of my favorite times of day. Also on the legs I walk solo I get to listen to audiobooks/podcasts. Win win.

Sometimes the sidewalks aren’t clear yet and kids walk in the streets in that scenario. A mile and a half in the street when cars are sliding are a scenario when I’m happy to pick up my 12 year old. I assure you, us Mainers are all-weather people. He walked to a basketball court and was there for 4 hours today, outside in 20 degree weather, but sometimes it’s just not safe.

We also don’t cancel for the small amounts of snow more urban districts cancel for. So what you picture as snow days, our kids are trekking through. (I lived in Somerville and worked in Boston for almost a decade so I am familiar with both)

[kiminky]

Feb 20, 2024 17:51:52 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Speaking to how to get things done and where I live - Regular every day citizens are VERY HIGHLY invested and involved in the local government. I've been to meetings with other municipalities and it's always commented on. Same with people who move here to work for the City, it's one of the first things they say, "Wow, people are highly involved here aren't they?"

I think a lot of people don't realize just how much one persistent voice can do in local government.

I'm sorry if I missed this-how big in population is your metro area and what is the number of students in your local public school district?

[jeaniebueller]

Feb 20, 2024 11:28:19 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Feb 20, 2024 11:21:49 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Oof... That's so much time out of the day!

I am glad a bus exists for kids without other options, but that should never be the planned daily commute IMO! Especially for the public school your are zoned to attend.

Welcome to middle of nowhere NE where schools consolidate for one big ass county. Rural kids I have no quibbles over people driving to their schools. Although kids upwards of 5 miles out would ride their bikes in on the dirt roads. In NE you can start driving to school when you're 14. Many kids start driving to help out their families as soon as they can reach the peddles.

3 hours each way! Damn. My DS is on the bus for 1.5 hours after school and I think that’s excessive but it’s the only option.

On a different note, I don’t understand how so many parents are able to pick up and drop off. I drop off on my way to work, but it’s always surprising to see that many parents with nothing going on in the middle of the day to pick up after schoo.

[scm1011]

Feb 20, 2024 18:04:03 GMT -5 jaylea said:

Feb 20, 2024 16:18:50 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Yeah I don't get the bad weather argument. We're in Boston and walk to school in ALL weather. It's cold or snowy? Layer up; my kids often wear snow pants to school. It's raining? rain boots + umbrellas do the trick. If my 4 year old can do it, I imagine most people can manage.

And like a PP said, the walk to/from school with them is actually one of my favorite times of day. Also on the legs I walk solo I get to listen to audiobooks/podcasts. Win win.

Sometimes the sidewalks aren’t clear yet and kids walk in the streets in that scenario. A mile and a half in the street when cars are sliding are a scenario when I’m happy to pick up my 12 year old. I assure you, us Mainers are all-weather people. He walked to a basketball court and was there for 4 hours today, outside in 20 degree weather, but sometimes it’s just not safe.

We also don’t cancel for the small amounts of snow more urban districts cancel for. So what you picture as snow days, our kids are trekking through. (I lived in Somerville and worked in Boston for almost a decade so I am familiar with both)

That’s fair! We do get more snow days than you guys for sure. I guess I mean more “it’s too cold” or “it’s raining” for excuses to drive.

[jlt19]

Our district campus is a good 7+ miles out off a country hwy in the farmlands. But they just built a new HS across said Hwy from the neighborhood that 95% of the district lives in. If you’re within a mile radius, there’s no bussing. I’m VERY curious how that’s been going (they literally moved to the new HS in late January and my kids aren’t HS aged).

We’re in the radius and DD knows I’ll drop her off at the end of the neighborhood next year on days I go into the office. After school and WFH days, she’s on her own. Better hope one of your friends’ siblings will drive you if you don’t want to walk!

[jaylea]

Feb 20, 2024 18:50:54 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Feb 20, 2024 18:04:03 GMT -5 jaylea said:

Sometimes the sidewalks aren’t clear yet and kids walk in the streets in that scenario. A mile and a half in the street when cars are sliding are a scenario when I’m happy to pick up my 12 year old. I assure you, us Mainers are all-weather people. He walked to a basketball court and was there for 4 hours today, outside in 20 degree weather, but sometimes it’s just not safe.

We also don’t cancel for the small amounts of snow more urban districts cancel for. So what you picture as snow days, our kids are trekking through. (I lived in Somerville and worked in Boston for almost a decade so I am familiar with both)

That’s fair! We do get more snow days than you guys for sure. I guess I mean more “it’s too cold” or “it’s raining” for excuses to drive.

Oh yeah, with the appropriate layers and gear, you can walk in most weather, fully agreed on that.

[kiminky]

Also, as many have pointed to weather and children needing to walk, etc. Our district is 17% MLL. Different cultures vary widely on acceptable weather conditions when coming to school. If we have really rainy days, often when I call Latino families about absences on those days they didn't attend due to the rain. I am by no means saying this is universal, just a pattern I have noticed in over 20 years with the district.

[pixy0stix]

Feb 20, 2024 18:41:40 GMT -5 kiminky said:

Feb 20, 2024 17:51:52 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Speaking to how to get things done and where I live - Regular every day citizens are VERY HIGHLY invested and involved in the local government. I've been to meetings with other municipalities and it's always commented on. Same with people who move here to work for the City, it's one of the first things they say, "Wow, people are highly involved here aren't they?"

I think a lot of people don't realize just how much one persistent voice can do in local government.

I'm sorry if I missed this-how big in population is your metro area and what is the number of students in your local public school district?

Around 169k for population, with another 33k for university students (fluctuating population). About 30k students in the school district.

We're not big, but we're also not small in comparison to other CO cities. It's the fourth largest in the state.

[jaylea]

Feb 20, 2024 19:41:54 GMT -5 kiminky said:

Also, as many have pointed to weather and children needing to walk, etc. Our district is 17% MLL. Different cultures vary widely on acceptable weather conditions when coming to school. If we have really rainy days, often when I call Latino families about absences on those days they didn't attend due to the rain. I am by no means saying this is universal, just a pattern I have noticed in over 20 years with the district.

A lot of kids here are new Americans from African countries and do not have winter gear. The schools do what they can to provide gear, and fortunately the district sends buses or vans to get kids in this scenario because it would be dangerous. We are about 25% ELL so it’s something the district needs to be aware of for sure.

[macmars45]

Feb 20, 2024 14:49:44 GMT -5 chedifuen said:

It's so interesting to read about how districts function. I just assumed that most were like ours!

Our kids were walkers in elementary, we lived close to a mile from the school and only had to cross one road, which did have a crosswalk. Limited sidewalks but that's fairly standard in my neighborhood and the roads are pretty quiet. I worked from home their entire childhood and walking them to and from school was my favorite part of the day. I miss it.

In middle and high school they are on the bus, we're only about 2 miles from the schools but the route isn't walkable due to expressways. My oldest drives himself now, he's a junior.

We wanted to buy in a walkable neighborhood to an elementary school... those neighborhoods had nothing for sale in 2020 so it didn't work out.

It's a 33 minute walk mostly on a 4 lane 40 mph road from our house to my work/DS' school. It's a 4 minute drive and I drive my EV.

[kershnic]

We only live about 1/2 mile from school, but they'd have to walk on a busy road with no sidewalks where car visibility is low if there's snow on the ground (which there should be in upstate NY). We have bussing. I don't think it's quite universal, but almost everyone can ride. The bus stop is in our driveway, but it takes 30+ minutes to get them to/from school, as opposed to a 3 minute drive. I drop them off in the morning and they ride the bus home. The inefficiency in schools in our area is ridiculous. But people would riot if they tried to change anything.

[outnumbered]

wawa,  Thanks for the information. I can be a pain in the ass and this narrow winding road needs a sidewalk so kids can get to school safely. 

I live in a town of about 26,000 people about 15 miles north of Boston. A big part of the population are people who have lived here their whole lives and do not like to see change. Fortunately a lot of young progressive families are moving in and are moving the needle on issues like affordable housing, alternative transportation, ev charging stations etc. But still whenever proposed road changes come out there is a significant portion of people who bitch and moan about adding bike lanes and sidewalks always wondering 'who bikes there'? Well my kid and his friends bike/walk on those roads. It is a small town and I am not driving him to the comic book store on the weekends.  He has feet.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Feb 20, 2024 18:50:54 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Feb 20, 2024 18:04:03 GMT -5 jaylea said:

Sometimes the sidewalks aren’t clear yet and kids walk in the streets in that scenario. A mile and a half in the street when cars are sliding are a scenario when I’m happy to pick up my 12 year old. I assure you, us Mainers are all-weather people. He walked to a basketball court and was there for 4 hours today, outside in 20 degree weather, but sometimes it’s just not safe.

We also don’t cancel for the small amounts of snow more urban districts cancel for. So what you picture as snow days, our kids are trekking through. (I lived in Somerville and worked in Boston for almost a decade so I am familiar with both)

That’s fair! We do get more snow days than you guys for sure. I guess I mean more “it’s too cold” or “it’s raining” for excuses to drive.

I live in Minnesota. My kid isn't walking to school when the air temp (not factoring in wind chill) is -20.

It's been a warm winter so we only had about a week of that extreme cold this year but last year a huge chunk of the winter was absolutely bitter.

[leahcar]

Feb 20, 2024 12:56:10 GMT -5 wawa said:

Feb 19, 2024 19:12:00 GMT -5 abs said:

Maybe but it’s also the infrastructure and funding. If DD walked to school she would walk 3 miles, cross a busy 4 lane road with a 50 mph speed limit where there are daily accidents from red light runners (it’s the phones), and there are no side walks for half of it. For high school add another mile plus train tracks. Nope. Would be nice to utilize the buses but again there isn’t enough space to accommodate instruments. Now that I think about it no one in band or orchestra takes the bus unless you play like flute.

These are all things that could be fixed of course. Better transportation options and more funding. But to say it’s the cars isn’t really fair in this case.

but it is the cars.  we have that infrastructure because of the cars.

we started building bigger roads to fit more cars, which forced more people into driving because you can't walk or bike with those big roads, so then we need even bigger roads. And then we have all these big roads going through all these places, so people can live further and further from everything, because it's "just a 10 min drive" so our land use patterns in most places outside older city and town cores are impossible to walk or bike around anyway, so then even more people drive cars everywhere.
and now vehicle manufacturers are making bigger and bigger cars and people are buying bigger and bigger cars because they need room for the hockey carpool and they dont' feel safe surrounded by all the OTHER big cars in a little sedan, so then people get even bigger cars, which are even less safe for everyoen outside the car, so even fewer people are able to safely walk or bike.....
and THEN you add in the literal cultural aspects of car use and ownership in the US where people think taking the bus is low class, people selling things think that the only market worth having are the folks arriving by car, cars are status symbols and security blankets and safe places and everybody thinks that it's perfectly normal and expected to be able to store a car for free on public property and that every person over the age of 16 in a household needs their own and also speed limits are suggestions.

 It all boils down to the cars at the end of the day, so in the same way that our gun violence issues are ALSO lots of other things (lack of mental health care, toxic masculinity, lack of community, blah blah blah) at the end of the day...it's the guns.  And the cars. 

I mean....for kids guns only recently overtook vehicle crashes as most common cause of accidental death.  They're both up there.  And it's way way worse here than most other developed countries.  The two issues have more in common than most people realize.  www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/health/us-children-gun-deaths-dg/index.html

abs and I both live in a city basically controlled by the oil & gas industry.  Plus- the geography has added to our sprawl problems.   It is SO hard to do anything but drive here.  We, at least, do school buses well in my district. 

I ride my bike to stuff within the neighborhood and people look at me like I have 3 heads.  We have a LOT of work to do here in regards to non-car infrastructure.  

[scm1011]

Feb 21, 2024 10:42:27 GMT -5 outnumbered said:

wawa ,  Thanks for the information. I can be a pain in the ass and this narrow winding road needs a sidewalk so kids can get to school safely. 

I live in a town of about 26,000 people about 15 miles north of Boston. A big part of the population are people who have lived here their whole lives and do not like to see change. Fortunately a lot of young progressive families are moving in and are moving the needle on issues like affordable housing, alternative transportation, ev charging stations etc. But still whenever proposed road changes come out there is a significant portion of people who bitch and moan about adding bike lanes and sidewalks always wondering 'who bikes there'? Well my kid and his friends bike/walk on those roads. It is a small town and I am not driving him to the comic book store on the weekends.  He has feet.

I hate this argument because its very much "if you build it they will come". I've lived in Somerville for the last 15 years. When I moved here there were very few bike lanes but now we have a really great network, and because of that me and many others use bikes as a main mode of transport when we didn't prior. 

Similarly to wherever you are, the old guard LOOOOOVES to bitch about the bike lanes but there are enough advocates to drown them out.  

[abs]

leahcar I was going to say yes there is very little appetite to change things here. In our neighborhood the MUD and HOA did pay to put in sidewalks on both sides of the streets as there a ton of kids here and many/most walk to/from school and to friends houses. In the neighborhood across the street though where the junior high is it's more older people that live there and they actively discourage sidewalks. I think it would be easy to fund but keeps getting voted down. There are literal "get off my lawn" signs in people's yards as a lot of the kids walk to the grocery store and get picked up there as it's much easier. Like they would rather these poor junior high kids just walk in the street than install a sidewalk for everyone's safety.

Your district does do bussing the best.