Poll: school bus or private drive

[HillCountry]

As this is a polling Monday, I am curious of how many of you drive your kids to school, vs kids take school bus, etc.

As per this report,
http://saferoutesinfo.org/sites/default/files/resources/NHTS_school_travel_report_2011_0.pdf
in 2009, 45% of kids ride in family vehicles, and 39% of kids ride school buses. As this is ER forum, I am expecting higher percentage of kids have private drive.

For our two kids, DW drives them to school in two separate trips in the morning. So that they can save 10 to 15 minuets’ of time not riding school bus.

[REWahoo]

My kids aren't going to school - they are in their 40's.

As to their kids, they are all driven to school:

- two live too close to school to be eligible for the school bus, but too far to walk (almost 2 miles). They are in a car pool.
- three live on the very end of their school bus route and the ride to and from school is almost an hour and a half each way.

[youbet]

The 3 grandkids, in a Chicago suburb, ride to elementary, middle and high school, respectively, on school buses. Seems to work fine, even for the oldest who has special needs and requires some extra effort by the driver.

[W2R]

Yay, another poll!


I'm not a young dreamer, and my kid is 37 going on 38 years old. So, I didn't vote.

However, when she was young I drove her to school and picked her up every day.

Those car lines were gruesome. But, I didn't have to worry about the drunk bus driver that occasionally drove the school bus she would have been taking. He actually drove that bus down the wrong side of a busy divided street, and didn't even stop when he saw cars coming at him. A Mom's nightmare, for sure. With her in my car, at least I knew she would get home in one piece (probably).

I tried to get her to ride her bike back and forth (about 2 miles), but apparently it is not cool or with-it for a girl to be seen all hot and sweaty riding a bike home from school and she won that battle.

[Sarah in SC]

Well, I was driven to school by my dad (and was late damn near every day, that man is gonna be late to his own funeral!) and took the bus home (classic late 70s-early 80s latchkey kid). I was too lazy to get up in time to meet the bus.

[ExFlyBoy5]

Ugh. This is one of the GREAT things of being retired. I got so sick and tired of sitting in traffic around the school because people took their kids to school instead of letting them ride the bus. I have STRONG opinions on this, but since it's a friendly forum, I will keep them to myself.

[2017ish]

Didn't answer poll, as mine are all out of college now.

I typically drove them to school until the oldest got his license and then they drove themselves thereafter. Private schools, no bus available save for two years, when they took the bus. Had a two year stretch where it was 45 mostly highway miles to the school.... Wasn't into "builds character" enough to let them walk that far!

E.T.A.--very small schools, so never had to wait in traffic lines. Just park, walk in, talk to teachers and staff and then leave when the kids were ready ....

[FUEGO]

Both of our school age kids walk. It's a nice 10 minute stroll along the sidewalks next to the tree-lined streets (or we take the slightly longer route on the greenway by the creek in the park).

The oldest is going to middle school in the fall. It's a good 13-15 minute drive, maybe 20 if rush hour traffic is bad in the AM (it rarely is going downtown at ~7:00 am). Our plan is for her to ride the bus in the AM and PM and pick her up when she has after school stuff. She'll be close to the last one on the bus in the morning (maybe a 6:40 am pick up time) but nearly last off in the afternoon.

There's a chance she can read or do other homework on the ride home, or at least play some games and jam out to music if nothing else (daily dose of fun).

If the bus becomes problematic such as poorly behaved students riding with her that can't be disciplined properly or it suffers from an unreliable schedule then we will drive or carpool with other families.

If our youngest enters preschool in the fall (still undecided/unknown) then we might have 3 kids in 3 different schools, 2 of which won't have bus as an option. As a result, having the oldest ride the bus will make our morning and afternoon schedules a little nicer. I didn't retire just so I could spend 3 hours per day driving kids around town.

[Walt34]

Not having any kids I voted for myself, and I always walked - elementary, middle school, high school. The walk to/from school was about the same distance as the bus stop, plus my stop was the last on the bus run so walking was actually faster. IIRC it was about 15-20 minutes so maybe a mile.

DW had to ride the bus.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 Not having any kids I voted for myself, and I always walked - elementary, middle school, high school.

Up hill, both ways, huh?

[jjquantz]

OK, I'll chime in. My kids walked to school throughout elementary and middle school, often with Dad alongside. Older daughter must have caught the bus for HS. However, when DD#2 entered HS, I was also teaching there. So our routine was: 1) Dad rides bike to school, 2) DD drives car to school and parks in faculty lot, 3) Dad goes out to lunch using the car, reparks in faculty lot, 4) DD drives car home, 5) Dad bikes to golf course or home, depending on the season. Worked out to be a couple of years of win-win for the two of us.

[aaronc879]

I find it very sad how few kids walk to school when old enough and/or no busy street to cross. I walked to and from school from 1st to 5th(with by brother 1st-4th) grade and from highschool 9th-11th grade. I got bused the rest of the time due to being too far or too dangerous. Over the years i've heard of many kids who got driven to school by their parents even though it was less than a mile with sidewalks and no busy streets to cross(and no rain or ice). Those parents are teaching their kids to be lazy and that is sad. When I went for a bike ride a few days ago, I saw dozens of bikes at the local elementary school and that was encouraging.

[jjquantz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronc879 I find it very sad how few kids walk to school when old enough and/or no busy street to cross. I walked to and from school from 1st to 5th(with by brother 1st-4th) grade and from highschool 9th-11th grade. I got bused the rest of the time due to being too far or too dangerous. Over the years i've heard of many kids who got driven to school by their parents even though it was less than a mile with sidewalks and no busy streets to cross(and no rain or ice). Those parents are teaching their kids to be lazy and that is sad. When I went for a bike ride a few days ago, I saw dozens of bikes at the local elementary school and that was encouraging.

I knew 2 teachers who (I'm not making this up) lived directly behind the school and drove to work. It took them longer to drive than it would have to walk because they had to go AROUND the block to the school, maybe 1/4 mile, and the straight line door-to-door was less than 75 yards.

Same small town, the mayor had to put a plea in the local paper asking people who worked in the shops downtown NOT TO PARK IN FRONT OF THE STORES so that the customers would have a place to park.

I lived 9/10 of a mile from the school where I taught and walked every day to work. First day I was offered rides by 5 different people, all of whom lived closer than I did. No wonder there was a city-wide pool on how soon I would leave town.

[Ronstar]

I didn't vote because we have no kids. But I agree with aaronc879 - it's sad that kids don't walk to school like in the old days. When I was in school in the 60's and early 70's, our high school and elementary school shared 2 buses. I now see at least 10-15 when I drive past the schools. For maybe twice the number of students.

[rodi]

Ok - I have to answer with some background.

We choose to send our kids to an IB Magnet school. In order to send them by school bus we'd need to drive them 2 miles away - and have them there at 5:50am. Originally they said it would be 6:20am... but they changed the time on us. Plus we had to pay for the schoolbus. (They have early bells - but this was 90 minutes on the bus.). We gave that up last year.

Instead, this year, we went with public bus. Closer bus stop and I drop them at the stop at 6:20am. That's on mornings I don't have Italian class... On days I have Italian - I drive them, since my college is next to the high school. They use their bus passes outside of school to go see friends and go to the beach on weekends.

For the trip home - on days they have tutoring or water polo - I drive them home. On days they don't, they take the bus. We're averaging 5 trips by car, 5 trips by bus, per week.

If I wasn't sending them to the magnet school they'd walk or bike like the other kids on our street.

[HillCountry]

I guess this poll is skewed as quite a few people might be voting for themselves.

As for myself, in elementary school I rode open top truck for 45 minutes one way. The truck would leave at 6:30am; it was pitch dark in winter time. And how fun when it was snowing or raining.

[Hermit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO Up hill, both ways, huh?

Wow! What a coincidence! That was how mine was too. And the snow was at least knee deep all year!

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO Up hill, both ways, huh?

Being a flat lander, I thought I'd look this up.

In 8 years of elementary school, I walked downhill 6' over 4 blocks to school. So my walk home was a brutal 6' ascent.

In my first 2 years of high school, I walked uphill 2' over 2 blocks to school.

I rode with friends to school my junior and senior years at a different high school.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermit Wow! What a coincidence! That was how mine was too. And the snow was at least knee deep all year!

Our walk is up hill both ways, but they close schools here in NC if it's below freezing and the wind blows hard enough (never know when it might snow...).

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodi Instead, this year, we went with public bus. Closer bus stop and I drop them at the stop at 6:20am. That's on mornings I don't have Italian class... On days I have Italian - I drive them, since my college is next to the high school. They use their bus passes outside of school to go see friends and go to the beach on weekends.

We applied to a few magnet schools in downtown. Two came with busing from our house to the school. The third option didn't come with free school busing, but it was literally 1 block from the main station downtown (so close that the station name was the same as the school name). If we got into that school my plan was to put the 6th grader on the public bus (free until she's 12 IIRC). Just as quick as driving when you factor in the typical carpool lines. I asked the school if any kids ride the city bus to school and they said about 10 (out of 500-600 students).