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#21
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Sue wrote: "dragonlady" wrote in message However, that school opened in about 1990, and most schools here are considerably older -- they weren't designed with the major amount of parent driving that takes place now in mind. Yeah, the kids' elementary school was built in 1929 with a total of 20 parking spots in the parking lot. I kid you not, I counted. Now we have over 300 kids going to this school and we are all crammed in there trying to drop off and pick up. I let my kids walk home in the afternoon, but I do drive them in the morning. We live on a busy road and the drivers are supposed to follow the 30 mph speed limit, but do you think the adults follow that speed??? Near our school, the police are out in force every morning and every afternoon (okay, we have a police force of 5 total, so there are about 2-3 officers out) ticketing anyone who goes above the speed limit of 30 (on surrounding roads) or 20 in the school zone. They manage to nab about 12-15 cars a day for speeding within an 8 'block' area -- tidy revenue for the town. Caledonia |
#22
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In article ,
"toypup" wrote: "dragonlady" wrote in message ... It is exactly this attitude that is creating the safety problem: everyone drives their kids to school, because of what I think is misplaced anxiety -- at least, in most areas it is misplaced. I've been astounded at what some people think are "unsafe" areas for children to walk in, with no evidence other than the general growing paranoia. Add to that that so many of the parents who drive do NOT pay attention to the pedestrians . . . And that the schools were not designed to have safe drop-off/pick up areas . . . With everyone driving their kids to school, shouldn't they be designed with safe drop-off/pick up areas. Too late if you have an older school, but they are building lots of them here. I'm not sure if they have safe zones, though. VERY few new schools being build around here -- but if I were somewhere where a new school was being built, that's one of things I'd want to insist on: a design that made for safe pick up and drop off. -- Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care |
#23
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JennP wrote:
"Claire Petersky" wrote in message ... 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. Our town has a *huge* problem with this. It's become a very serious safety issue. Not only do they not walk if outside the bus radius, but the busses are practically empty because so many parents drive their kids to school. JennP. Our neighborhood also has a big problem with this. Lots of buses are half-filled. The other pet peeve of mine is that many of these parents are working parents so they are often in a rush, hence the unsafe speeds and rudeness. It's pretty much a madhouse. I think, for some reason, people think it's unsafe for children to be riding the bus or walking so they end up chauffeuring their children to school. I'm not talking about working parents who drop off their children at the school's before-care or students whose neighborhoods lack sidewalks - these are cases where parents need to drive their children. Our neighbor refuses to let their daughter stand at the bus stop for 5 minutes (usually two moms are there as well) because they think random strangers will note the presence of the children and try something. Instead they take their daughter to before-school care at a local daycare for 5-10 minutes and let them take the girl to school. It's certainly their choice and if it makes them feel better, it's a valid solution but I wonder what makes them feel the neighborhood is so unsafe? It's your typical middle/upper-middle class suburban neighborhood with sidewalks, with a low crime rate, never a kidnapping, etc. |
#24
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#25
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On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 15:52:09 EDT, "Sushi Fish"
wrote: to be safe, you want to drive her to school. cars are not the only threat. your child is still at elementary, too little to walk by herself, shortcut tends to be in obscure area. So much of that depends on where you live and where the school is. Our children walked or cycled home from school by themselves or with peers (about a kilometer on an pre-arranged route) starting in Grade One. (They usually walked or cyled the same route with parents in the morning.) A footpath or bicycle path such as Claire describes is not necessarily in an "obscure area". Presumably it's a path that Claire's been taking with her children for many years. Your post sounds to me as if you are criticizing Claire's parenting judgement, without enough information to do so fairly. Louise |
#26
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"Claire Petersky" wrote in message ... 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. Can you walk with her? Unfortunately I don't think people will ever pay attention to pedestrians again... they're just an annoyance that makes for extra wear & tear on the SUV's brakes these days... |
#27
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"hedgehog42" wrote in message ups.com... Today, I don't think it's generally a case of Mom/Dad believing their young prince/princess shouldn't have to muddy those expensive athletic shoes, at least not around here. I think there are safety/practicality issues that make driving the kids look like the better option. Our neighborhood has fewer kids attending public school (some are homeschooled, some attend private schools without local bus service) and so there's less of a "safety in numbers" protection for everything from child predators to classroom bullies to unleashed dogs. Plus, there are fewer moms at home during those hours to keep an eye out than there were WIWAK. I think this is true, many parent think there are safety/practicality issues that make driving the kids look like the better option. I was on a school committee to encourage walking and biking to school. We wanted to see what the impediments to walking or biking were, so we sent out surveys. It turns out the reason people drive their kids to school are not rational things that can be fixed. Some number were sure their children would be kidnapped by strangers. Note, there has been no child abductions by strangers in this area in the school district's 50 year history. Yet, there it is, you can't convince people that is not a risk. There were some that were convinced dropping off and picking up saved time, despite the fact that walking to school from their houses would take 5 to 10 minutes round trip, yet sitting in the parking lot trying to get out could take at least that. And of course, if the children were big enough to ride or walk themselves to school it would take them 0 minutes. There were those that felt walking along this some what busy two lane street was dangerous, despite the wide sidewalk, planted area, and bike lane between them and the cars on the street. Most suggestion were how to make the parking lot more efficient for the drivers, rather than safer for the pedestrians. I live in a safe community where 90 percent of the children live within 1 mile of the school, and 90 percent of those have to cross no more than one two lane street, both of which have crossing guards. There are few places in our neighborhood, and no place on my daughter's route to school, where she is more than two houses away from someone she knows. There are two back entrances where no cars drop off, and when entering the school on foot from the front you do not have to cross the cars entering or exiting the parking lot. The school is estatic when 20 to 30 percent of the students walk or bike to school. The survey showed me that parent prefer to drive their kids to school, and nothing we can do will change their minds. |
#28
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*On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 12:15:13 EDT, "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. My son's school drop off/pick up situation is going to make me crazy. We do not live close enough to walk - it's about 8 miles away, over the river and through the woods (literally! and we actually drive past his grandmother's house as an added bonus ). So, ok, we drive. We're required to make a left into the lot and a right out of the lot - this means that we have to actually go around the school because the way we approach, we'd have to make a right into the lot which is forbidden. So, ultimately what happens is a huge line of cars forms waiting to get into the lot... and the cars which are just driving down the road NOT wanting to get into the school... what do they do? They reasonably enough do not want to sit in traffic 2 city blocks worth for "no reason," so they decide to just drive in the lane reserved for opposing traffic! This is a two-lane road. It's also curvy. So when people start EXITING the lot, they are confronted with the cars going the WRONG WAY. It's a huge problem, IMO. I mean, I've only been doing it for a week, but several times last week I feared for my life. Literally. And I had my babies in the car.... I think the pedestrians have it easy, because the pedestrian access is via a walking path slightly apart from the parking lot. You don't have to get near any of this craziness if you walk! Lucky pedestrians. I asked the head of the school if the school had asked for police support and she indicated they had, but it was not forthcoming. -- Hillary Israeli, VMD Lafayette Hill/PA/USA/Earth "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read." --Groucho Marx |
#29
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"Sushi Fish" wrote in
ups.com: to be safe, you want to drive her to school. cars are not the only threat. your child is still at elementary, too little to walk by herself, shortcut tends to be in obscure area. oh, that's fear-mongering. i walked a mile to school in Rochester NY, crossing at least 4 streets & using a bridge over 590 starting at age 4. kids can be made aware of dangers without being scared to death. stranger abduction/molestation is *extremely* rare. lee -- war is peace freedom is slavery ignorance is strength 1984-George Orwell |
#30
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Caledonia wrote: Near our school, the police are out in force every morning and every afternoon (okay, we have a police force of 5 total, so there are about 2-3 officers out) ticketing anyone who goes above the speed limit of 30 (on surrounding roads) or 20 in the school zone. They manage to nab about 12-15 cars a day for speeding within an 8 'block' area -- tidy revenue for the town. Caledonia Yes, the police used to do this near my kid's school as well. I think they got a pretty good "take," besides having a civilizing effect on traffic. Rupa |
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