Claire Petersky wrote:

My daughter walks or rides her scooter or bike to her elementary school
every day. Because the route goes on a footpath, it's only a quarter mile;
the route by motor vehicle is four times longer. The biggest problem right
now the kids walking is all the other parents who drive. She only has one
street to cross, and of course there's crossing guards, but the parents
still do not seem to respect the pedestrians in the vicinity.

Unfortunately, due to media hysteria, many parents truly believe that
if their kids are allowed out of their sight for five minutes, it's
practically a certainty that they will be kidnapped or attacked. Of
course, this results in a vicious circle because, as fewer and fewer
kids are out and about, the less safe it becomes for the remaining few
who are and, of course, it also puts added pressure on other parents to
follow suit as they don't want to be judged neglectful or reckless by
the "moral majority" (as they would style themselves).

It's counterproductive, of course, as the net effect is that each
individual child gets less and less experience of self-determination
and so are less able to judge the real risk level in any situation and
respond to it accordingly - not to mention the damage done to their
health by being denied the incidental exercise that many of us got
walking or cycling to and fro from school and from the increased
traffic and pollution levels they are exposed to.

Someone alerted me to this website: http://drivetoschoolhallofshame.com/
that has photographs from a different school, of all the chaos caused by
parents who are driving their kids to school. What is this craziness? WIWAK,
the only time you got a ride from school was when you were sick or
something.

The reason for inconsiderate driving in the vicinity of schools is
simple - a lot of (but by no means all or even most) people are lazy
and unimaginative. While these people would squeal blue murder if
anyone endangered *their* child, they do not recognise that other
people's children are worthy of the same consideration. I used to live
in the same street as a school, which was situated on a sharp bend at
the top of a very steep hill. Whenever I approached the corner, I made
sure to slow down in case any pedestrians were about but many's the
time I saw other drivers speeding round the corner, up and down the
hill (in icy conditions) and stopping/parking/reversing without a
thought for other drivers or pedestrians. You would think that, having
just dropped off their own kids, they would be acutely aware of the
safety of other children but it just didn't seem to occur to them.

Sorry if I'm ranting but it's one of my pet peeves

Cheers

Helen