@ Tantrums &Turf Wars: The School Car Line Is Chaos

[plutosmoon]

Apr 20, 2024 20:14:49 GMT -5 wawa said:

Apr 18, 2024 19:54:49 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

Sorry, I wasn't clear. My point was when we don't get funding for these specific items. 

For example, we have been trying to build a bike path for over 10 years, there has been a ton of funding from various sources, and I am thrilled with this path and am excited for it to finally be built. There are a lot of reasons it is taking forever, but from my understanding part is funding. Once we finally build it, we need to also make sure there is a steady stream of funding from outside sources to maintain it, otherwise it could fall to our city budget. I know municipalities in the area have sued to the state for broken funding promises related to transportation, so people around here get nervous the support funds will be cut. It also seems to take a really really long time to get these various fundings. Our crosswalk requests had to wait years for funding to do a traffic study. Maybe my city just sucks at the funding requests?

Yeah sounds like it.

Feel free to pm me if you want to talk about it in more detail, but this sounds like more than the typical levels of govt dysfunction

Probably.  I have trouble getting details from the drama sometimes. It's a super small city, very old guard vs newcomers battle issues. One lady's platform for mayor included listing all the long time families she was related to.

[lostrn]

Apr 20, 2024 3:42:26 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

When you say kids don't have access to a locker, do you mean the schools don't have any? Or that there's too little time between classes to access them?

When my DS was in middle school they didn't have enough lockers for everyone to have one. I know of kids wanted one they had to sign up for one and I think it was basically first come first serve? I don't remember that part.

Now in high school everyone has a locker but my DS's locker is upstairs in a hallway he literally never has a reason to walk down, so he doesn't bother with it.
But I guess that really doesn't matter too much for this discussion, we drop him off at school in the morning about 40 minutes before school starts so we can get to work on time and there's no line then and he does public transportation home 90% of the time. We are far outside of the zone for bussing for this school but it is the only school in our county with the particular program DS is enrolled in.

[fancynewbeesly]

DD's middle school has lockers--I want to say kids SEEM to use them. The school isn't super spread out--6th and 7th grade upstairs and 8th downstairs. So the lockers are fairly close to their classes.

[mrsukyankee]

Thought you'd enjoy this:

[cattledogkisses]

It's funny that in 20+ years some things never change. When I was in high school (in New England) it was also seen as embarrassing and uncool to wear a coat in the winter, no matter how freezing it was outside. Teenagers are so weird.

[fortnightlily]

Apr 21, 2024 3:14:58 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Thought you'd enjoy this:

I didn't get through the whole video, but the initial shots of the German suburb actually reminded me of the parts of Los Angeles I lived in during the early 2000s. LA gets a lot of flack for sprawl and car culture, and it's true that traffic is absolutely horrific, BUT, so much of the city is more semi-urban. Streets with smaller lots that mix single family homes and modestly-sized apartment buildings that are sandwiched between the larger commercial arteries with an abundance of shops and restaurants that you can walk to that often only offer street parking. It's when you want to leave your neighborhood to get to another part of the city that the lack of public transit options becomes an issue. Of course the weather makes year-round walkability more pleasant, too.

As opposed to the DC suburbs where I live now, where there are few neighborhoods with single family homes where any store or restaurant is within <10 min walking distance, where there are no cute 2-3 story <50 unit apartment buildings, just isolated apartment complexes, and even if you wanted to take a longer walk or a bus to a store the sidewalk to get there runs alongside a 6 lane road and there's a massive parking lot between the sidewalk and the storefront that you have to navigate on foot. 

[bears]

I hate carpool line so much. When DD was in K, I did pickup and my goal was always to be the last person to pick up their kid on time so I could just pull up to the curb without a wait. A lot of parents get on line early so they can make it to after school activities, but I cannot stomach waiting in carpool line so long.

The set up of schools here is that it is high school, middle school, and elementary school, all on the same road. This means that the whole area is chaos from 2 pm to almost 4 pm. I picked up DD once from MS carpool and it was a disaster, with the MS carpool line commingling with the ES carpool line. Next time I will just have her walk to the HS or to the beginning of the neighborhood.

I would love to have her walk home if there are bus issues, but I'm always really nervous, due to high school drivers (and distracted parents). There are somewhat frequent (car) accidents at the nearby intersection they would need to cross. There is a crosswalk, but so much dangerous driving!

[bears]

Apr 21, 2024 9:54:04 GMT -5 bears said:

.

[Scout'sHonor]

I live across the street from the elementary. We weren’t considering kids when we first built and I was slightly annoyed when people would partially block our driveway or if I had to leave the house at start and end times. When people park on both sides of the street it makes it a one lane road to drive. However, now that I have a kid, it’s the best. We walk her over regardless of weather and she goes to after care, so I don’t deal with the chaos of pickup.

[whattheheck]

Apr 19, 2024 4:43:40 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

If I lived near a school I'd be pissed at all these parents parking a couple blocks away, too. I can see why they'd do it, but surely there has to be some better way.

Bussing isn't an option in many locations, or it has issues like 6am pickups because of driver shortages.

Genuine question - why would you be pissed? Assuming these are legal parking spots available to everyone why would you be pissed that they’re being used as intended? Or are you saying you’d be pissed by people parking illegally?

[bears]

I don't understand how many families don't utilize the buses when available. There are so many families that PASS the bus stop in their cars every morning on their way to the school.

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2024 8:53:19 GMT -5 bears said:

I don't understand how many families don't utilize the buses when available. There are so many families that PASS the bus stop in their cars every morning on their way to the school.

Busses in our area are completely unreliable. Some days the bus is so late that kids get to school 45 minutes late, and are returned to their bus stop 45-60 minutes late in the afternoon. That’s if the bus comes at all. I absolutely cannot fault families choosing to skip the unpredictability of the bus, even if it results in greater inconvenience of having to do car line twice a day.

[shauni27]

Apr 22, 2024 8:53:19 GMT -5 bears said:

I don't understand how many families don't utilize the buses when available. There are so many families that PASS the bus stop in their cars every morning on their way to the school.

I can drop S off at 7:30, but if we waited for the bus, he would not get picked up until 7:50. My workday is supposed to start at 7:30, 7:45 at the latest, so I cannot wait for the bus to pick him up.

[somersault72]

Apr 20, 2024 14:07:16 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Apr 20, 2024 13:53:45 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

So, I had the pre-Columbine/post-columbine school experience - I’m sure a lot of people here did as well. We went from having 5 minute passing periods/full period (60+ minute)lunches/could carry bags to 4 minute passing periods/25 minute lunches/could not carry bags. I was still able to go to my locker a few times per day to switch out books, grab a tampon, etc. We had 1200-1300 in our school, I know there were fights and smoking. I don’t know how it was handled because it wasn’t my scene.

I don’t know. I genuinely feel bad for kids. We’re not doing a great job.

Ah, that is a huge change. Columbine happened my senior year of HS and the single change my school implemented was (no joke) banning trench coats. I was in an identically sized school and have heard there were fights but almost never saw them or was aware of them.

Another person who graduated the year of the Columbine shooting whose school banned trench coats. If it wasn't so devastatingly tragic it would almost be funny to see what's been implemented (banning trench coats, making kids have clear--or no-backpacks just to name a couple) over the years except trying to do anything about the ACTUAL problem.

[wawa]

Apr 22, 2024 11:21:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Apr 22, 2024 8:53:19 GMT -5 bears said:

I don't understand how many families don't utilize the buses when available. There are so many families that PASS the bus stop in their cars every morning on their way to the school.

I can drop S off at 7:30, but if we waited for the bus, he would not get picked up until 7:50. My workday is supposed to start at 7:30, 7:45 at the latest, so I cannot wait for the bus to pick him up.

how strange.  are you dropping him at beforecare, or are you just allowed to drop your kid that early and they just hang out?  If the bus isn't picking up till 750 presumably he's not arriving till 8, which i guess is when school actually starts?  

that's totally backward from how it works here.  Walkers aren't supposed to arrive, and they don't start letting drop-off kids out of their cars, until 5 minutes before the first bell. Buses start pulling in full of kids right at that same time, and they've been out doing pickup in the preceding half hour.

[bears]

Apr 22, 2024 11:21:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Apr 22, 2024 8:53:19 GMT -5 bears said:

I don't understand how many families don't utilize the buses when available. There are so many families that PASS the bus stop in their cars every morning on their way to the school.

I can drop S off at 7:30, but if we waited for the bus, he would not get picked up until 7:50. My workday is supposed to start at 7:30, 7:45 at the latest, so I cannot wait for the bus to pick him up.

But these people are passing us while we're at the bus stop and are often right behind the bus! I don't know their schedules, but it is a stay at home parent driving the kids.

I know sometimes the pick up timing is weird and it makes more sense to just drive, but I don't see how driving makes more sense than the bus in this scenario.

[sent]

Apr 22, 2024 12:11:18 GMT -5 bears said:

Apr 22, 2024 11:21:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

I can drop S off at 7:30, but if we waited for the bus, he would not get picked up until 7:50. My workday is supposed to start at 7:30, 7:45 at the latest, so I cannot wait for the bus to pick him up.

But these people are passing us while we're at the bus stop and are often right behind the bus! I don't know their schedules, but it is a stay at home parent driving the kids.

I know sometimes the pick up timing is weird and it makes more sense to just drive, but I don't see how driving makes more sense than the bus in this scenario.

We have subscription bussing because state laws say a bus is not required due to the distance. So a family could opt to not pay for the bus but drive their kid instead of walking to school. The state law likely assumed kids were going to walk since it was written a long time ago. The bus picks up at 8 whereas the earliest you can drop off at the school is 8:15. Since I am going to pay for the subscription, it doesn’t make sense to not utilize the bus in my case.

But if the bus is free, I’m sure there could be other reasons why a parent doesn’t want their kid on there.

[shauni27]

Apr 22, 2024 11:51:26 GMT -5 wawa said:

Apr 22, 2024 11:21:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

I can drop S off at 7:30, but if we waited for the bus, he would not get picked up until 7:50. My workday is supposed to start at 7:30, 7:45 at the latest, so I cannot wait for the bus to pick him up.

how strange.  are you dropping him at beforecare, or are you just allowed to drop your kid that early and they just hang out?  If the bus isn't picking up till 750 presumably he's not arriving till 8, which i guess is when school actually starts?  

that's totally backward from how it works here.  Walkers aren't supposed to arrive, and they don't start letting drop-off kids out of their cars, until 5 minutes before the first bell. Buses start pulling in full of kids right at that same time, and they've been out doing pickup in the preceding half hour.

The school provides staff to watch kids for an extended morning recess starting at 7:30; school starts at 8. I went to a different school as a kid, but we had a similar scenario (though it was rare we got there early and were instead usually late haha).

[shauni27]

Apr 22, 2024 12:11:18 GMT -5 bears said:

Apr 22, 2024 11:21:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

I can drop S off at 7:30, but if we waited for the bus, he would not get picked up until 7:50. My workday is supposed to start at 7:30, 7:45 at the latest, so I cannot wait for the bus to pick him up.

But these people are passing us while we're at the bus stop and are often right behind the bus! I don't know their schedules, but it is a stay at home parent driving the kids.

I know sometimes the pick up timing is weird and it makes more sense to just drive, but I don't see how driving makes more sense than the bus in this scenario.

yeah, there is one day a week that I bring him later, and that is strictly due to my schedule on that day. And we are behind the bus for half the route. However, the other difficult thing--as we are so rural, the bus does not pick up at our house, so if he were to take the bus, I would have to drive him half way to school anyway just for him to get picked up. It is frustrating. Growing up we had a similar scenario, but it was only 1/2 mile away that we had to go meet the bus, not 3 miles like it is for my son. 

[wawa]

Apr 22, 2024 14:30:00 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Apr 22, 2024 11:51:26 GMT -5 wawa said:

how strange.  are you dropping him at beforecare, or are you just allowed to drop your kid that early and they just hang out?  If the bus isn't picking up till 750 presumably he's not arriving till 8, which i guess is when school actually starts?  

that's totally backward from how it works here.  Walkers aren't supposed to arrive, and they don't start letting drop-off kids out of their cars, until 5 minutes before the first bell. Buses start pulling in full of kids right at that same time, and they've been out doing pickup in the preceding half hour.

The school provides staff to watch kids for an extended morning recess starting at 7:30; school starts at 8. I went to a different school as a kid, but we had a similar scenario (though it was rare we got there early and were instead usually late haha).

that's nice!  we have before care, but it's staffed through our county parks and rec and they just use the school cafeteria, so we have to pay for it all separately and there's limited spots  signing up is like getting big deal concert tickets online.

[macmars45]

Apr 22, 2024 8:53:19 GMT -5 bears said:

I don't understand how many families don't utilize the buses when available. There are so many families that PASS the bus stop in their cars every morning on their way to the school.

My autistic DS would get to school overstimulated and dysregulated because the bus is loud and chaotic with a driver who runs on his own schedule he's always late in the morning and takes forever to leave the parking lot after school is over. I work at DS' school so he comes with me. A few times a month (at most) H drops him off/picks him up due to my early or late work meetings.

If I had a neurotypical kid I'd have him ride the bus home every day and to school on days I have early meetings. Alas that isn't the kid I have.

[abs]

Apr 22, 2024 8:53:19 GMT -5 bears said:

I don't understand how many families don't utilize the buses when available. There are so many families that PASS the bus stop in their cars every morning on their way to the school.

For us it’s that the bus can’t accommodate DD’s instrument. They sit 2-3 kids on a seat and can’t have anything on the aisle. It’s super annoying because the bus is quite reliable and convenient but she can’t comfortably or safely sit with a 40 pound instrument on her lap.

[kath16]

Apr 19, 2024 4:43:40 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

If I lived near a school I'd be pissed at all these parents parking a couple blocks away, too. I can see why they'd do it, but surely there has to be some better way.

Bussing isn't an option in many locations, or it has issues like 6am pickups because of driver shortages.

this is my neighborhood. 

it is an absolute disaster at pickup time. dropoff seems to be less of an issue, but basically don't try to go anywhere from 2:30 - 3:30. people are parked all up and down our small neighborhood roads on both sides so you can't see anything. 

and this is WITH a walking bus! the amount of elementary school parents that i see who drive from their house in our neighborhood, to the point where the walking bus splits off (the entrance to our neighborhood) is honestly outrageous. bad weather is one thing but this is an everyday occurrence. it is literally a 3/4 of a mile from the door of our elementary school to the farthest reaches of our neighborhood, and these precious angels can't possibly walk that far on a sunny, 70 degree day.

(of course there are exceptions and of course some kids can't physically do this for valid reasons. that's not what i mean here)

[whattheheck]

kath16 what is a “walking bus”?

[pixy0stix]

Apr 25, 2024 11:26:29 GMT -5 whattheheck said:

kath16 what is a “walking bus”?

Families organize a group of kids to all walk together.

www.walkingschoolbus.org/

[kath16]

Apr 25, 2024 11:26:29 GMT -5 whattheheck said:

kath16 what is a “walking bus”?

The school organizes all the kids in our neighborhood and they all walk together down the sidewalk and across the one street that goes into our neighborhoods. Teachers are assigned to walk with them to the street and then the crossing guard holds traffic for a few minutes to get them into the neighborhood

Younger kids meet their parents there and older kids split off to finish the walk home

[fancynewbeesly]

In our town I think probably about 80% of elementary students have bus service. Our bus stop is for the kindergarten/preschool bus and I want to say about 7/8 kids are at the stop. A lot of the elementary schools are close to a busy road, so the schools do a lot of courtesy bussing, except for the ones that don't need to cross a busy road.

By the time they reach 6th and in middle school--I would say maybe 30%-40% of our town takes the bus. The middle/high schools are more in a neighborhood, and if you live I want to say under a 1.5 mile and a half you don't get courtesy bussing. DD1 rides her bike to and from school with her good friend. I want to say you can get subscription bussing--I think it costs about 200 a year. Some families on our block take part of it, but a lot don't. We live about a mile from the middle school in a residential area.

I do wish there was a way to make her backpack lighter when she rides her bike though.

[Jalapeñomel]

Apr 25, 2024 14:28:14 GMT -5 fancynewbeesly said:

In our town I think probably about 80% of elementary students have bus service. Our bus stop is for the kindergarten/preschool bus and I want to say about 7/8 kids are at the stop. A lot of the elementary schools are close to a busy road, so the schools do a lot of courtesy bussing, except for the ones that don't need to cross a busy road.

By the time they reach 6th and in middle school--I would say maybe 30%-40% of our town takes the bus. The middle/high schools are more in a neighborhood, and if you live I want to say under a 1.5 mile and a half you don't get courtesy bussing. DD1 rides her bike to and from school with her good friend. I want to say you can get subscription bussing--I think it costs about 200 a year. Some families on our block take part of it, but a lot don't. We live about a mile from the middle school in a residential area.

I do wish there was a way to make her backpack lighter when she rides her bike though.

Can you buy a copy of her books for home, so she can leave a book in her locker?

[pixy0stix]

Apr 25, 2024 14:28:14 GMT -5 fancynewbeesly said:

I do wish there was a way to make her backpack lighter when she rides her bike though.

I mentioned this upthread - get her panniers for her bike. Then she won't have to carry her backpack. They make all sorts of different kinds.

[mrshandy]

Apr 21, 2024 9:48:40 GMT -5 fortnightlily said:

Apr 21, 2024 3:14:58 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Thought you'd enjoy this:

I didn't get through the whole video, but the initial shots of the German suburb actually reminded me of the parts of Los Angeles I lived in during the early 2000s. LA gets a lot of flack for sprawl and car culture, and it's true that traffic is absolutely horrific, BUT, so much of the city is more semi-urban. Streets with smaller lots that mix single family homes and modestly-sized apartment buildings that are sandwiched between the larger commercial arteries with an abundance of shops and restaurants that you can walk to that often only offer street parking. It's when you want to leave your neighborhood to get to another part of the city that the lack of public transit options becomes an issue. Of course the weather makes year-round walkability more pleasant, too.

As opposed to the DC suburbs where I live now, where there are few neighborhoods with single family homes where any store or restaurant is within <10 min walking distance, where there are no cute 2-3 story <50 unit apartment buildings, just isolated apartment complexes, and even if you wanted to take a longer walk or a bus to a store the sidewalk to get there runs alongside a 6 lane road and there's a massive parking lot between the sidewalk and the storefront that you have to navigate on foot. 

See I live in the DC suburbs just outside the beltway and have a different experience. I guess you could call it semiurban. Our school is in the middle of the neighborhood so we only have one bus. We're only a few blocks away so DD walks to school. There are sidewalks the entire way and a crossing guard at the one slightly busy road. Not everywhere is the same in suburbia. Our neighborhood was built up in the 50s so the houses are smaller than newer ones built today. 

I've never gone through the car line, every now and then I might drive a few blocks and park to give her an easier time if it's pouring. DS is in middle school so he takes the bus and I'm very grateful for it. Next year he's going to do a STEM program at a high school that we're not districted for so I'll have to drive him. I looked into him taking a city bus, but it will take 40 minutes for what is a 10-15 min drive. Not looking forward to it!