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Inconsiderate drivers and kids who walk to school



 
 
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  #11  
Old September 18th 05, 05:06 AM
Louise
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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.


Does your school have rules or guidelines for parents who pick up
children by car? Our elementary school used to put a note in the
school newsletter once or twice a year reminding parents that if they
drove to school, they were expected to park in the parking lot and
turn off their engines due to the safety hazards of cars stopping on
the sides of the road and the health hazards of leaving engines
running. They also sometimes had teachers or bossy parents (maybe
they were members of the parent council or something?) knocking on car
windows reminding them to go park in the parking lot. Another measure
which seems to help somewhat include lobbying the municipal government
for a lowered speed limit (and police enforcement) near the school or
near a major school crossing.

Louise

  #12  
Old September 18th 05, 05:07 AM
bizby40
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"dragonlady" wrote in message
...

And that the schools were not designed to have safe drop-off/pick up
areas . . .


My kids' school is on a 45 mph winding country road with no sidewalks.
There really is no safe way for kids to walk there, even if there were
kids who lived close enough to walk.

Actually, let me take that back, there is one gravel road that goes
behind the school, and there are 2 or 3 kids who can and do walk
from there. Luckily though, they are walking across the fields and
entering through the back doors, so they are nowhere near the
road or the cars out front.

And the school seems to have handled the drop-off/pick-up
pretty well. For pick-up, you have to go in and physically
sign your child out, so you have to actually park and walk in.
For drop-off, the cars enter the school lot, loop through the
parking lot, and each one stops and lets their child out at
the door. There is a person stationed there every day to
make sure that 1) the kids cross the bus drop-off safely,
2) no cars try to drive around other cars, and 3) no one
lets their child out until they have pulled up to the drop-off
point.

There are a lot more drop-offs than pick-ups of course.
First, many working parents drop their kids in the morning,
and then the kids go to afterschool. Of course they still
need to be picked up, but it's over the course of a couple
hours, not all at once.

Bizby


  #13  
Old September 18th 05, 05:13 AM
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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

  #14  
Old September 18th 05, 12:18 PM
dragonlady
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In article ,
"bizby40" wrote:

"dragonlady" wrote in message
...

And that the schools were not designed to have safe drop-off/pick up
areas . . .


My kids' school is on a 45 mph winding country road with no sidewalks.
There really is no safe way for kids to walk there, even if there were
kids who lived close enough to walk.

Actually, let me take that back, there is one gravel road that goes
behind the school, and there are 2 or 3 kids who can and do walk
from there. Luckily though, they are walking across the fields and
entering through the back doors, so they are nowhere near the
road or the cars out front.


The elementary school my kids attended when we were in Massachusetts had
been designed with a "drop off/pick up" loop. There were two loops:
one for the buses, and people were not allowed in or out of that parking
lot during the beginning and end of the day, and a second for parent
pick up. It was well designed, and worked well.

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.
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

  #15  
Old September 18th 05, 12:20 PM
-L.
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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.

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.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky


This is a HUGE problem in our neighborhood. The elementary school is a
couple of blocks from our home. The parents use our street as a
thoroughfare, and they SPEED down the street at 40-45 mph when they are
going to drop off or pick up their children. The city refuses to put
in speed bumps, and says if we can petition 15 people to sign for it,
and PAY FOR IT OURSELVES, we can put one in. I am terribly disturbed
because there are at least 8 children 4 years old and under within a
two-block span of our street. It is just a matter of time before
someone is killed or hurt. I have called the police and asked for
speed traps 4 different times since we have lived here, but it does no
good. I haven't called the school, but that may be my next approach.

-L.

  #16  
Old September 18th 05, 12:22 PM
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Kevin Karplus wrote:
On 2005-09-17, 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.


Wrong---the health hazard of being in a car far exceeds the risks of
being a pedestrian, except in the very worst neighborhoods.

For pedestrians and bicyclists, cars are not the *only* threat, but
they are the biggest threat to kids of death or serious injury by
orders of magnitude.

The attitude that everyone *ought to* drive their kids everywhere is
probably one of the largest contributors to the obesity epidemic in
the US.


When mine were little, I wouldn't have allowed them to walk. There were
no sidewalks in some areas. There were roads to cross. Most kids in the
area did not walk. I didn't like the idea of the children walking
alone. I would have no way of knowing they had reached school.

By the time my kids were old enough that I would have considered
letting them walk (about 10-11) we were no longer living close enough
to school for it to be feasible.

The schools did not provide buses except for children being bused in
from other neighborhoods as an affirmative action measure. It was
easier for me to drop them in their schools and then go to work,
knowing they were safe.

Rupa

  #17  
Old September 18th 05, 12:22 PM
toypup
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"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.

  #18  
Old September 18th 05, 01:58 PM
shinypenny
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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.

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.



I went to the URL you posted, and just one nit: not all states have a
yield to pedestrian rule. In PA (at least when I lived there years ago)
pedestrians must yield to traffic. Where I live now we do have a yield
to pedestrian rule. When I first moved here, it took me a long while to
get used to that. :-)

But this is my pet peeve too. Three years ago, we lived within walking
distance of the grade school, except that the girls would've had to
cross a very busy major thoroughfare first - and there were no crossing
guards or lights. In the AM this thoroughfare has heavy, swift traffic.
It wasn't safe. So I would drive them. But it amazed me how many
parents who lived on the other side of this major street would drive
their kids to school, even though once you got across the major road,
there were crossing guards (parent volunteers) at every single
intersection, and copious sidewalks. We also have safe zones and all
that.

However, I have been apalled enough on numerous occasions witnessing
parents whipping by over the speed limit in their rush to get the kids
to school, then back on the road to head to the office.

This year both girls are finally walking to school. It's only about 1/2
mile. There is a crossing guard at the light at the busiest point on
the route. However, they have to go out of their way to get to this
light - it is much quicker if they don't, and attempt to cross farther
up the street. I have urged them over and over not to cut at that
point, because despite a crosswalk it is at a bend in the road where
traffic proceeds very fast as people head up to the turnpike. This is
not just parents - it's everyone rushing to commute to work.

The only other thing I wanted to point out is that backpacks have
become very heavy these days. I am amazed at how heavy. Yes, my kids
are walking, but DDs are already complaining that their back hurts by
the time they get to school.

I do wonder how many parents opt for driving simply because they take
pity on kids carrying such huge backpacks. And no, don't say the answer
is a backpack on wheels; we can't have them at MS because they make the
class-changes impossible - take up too much space in the halls.

jen

  #19  
Old September 18th 05, 03:10 PM
Sue
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"Louise" wrote in message
Does your school have rules or guidelines for parents who pick up
children by car? Our elementary school used to put a note in the
school newsletter once or twice a year reminding parents that if they
drove to school, they were expected to park in the parking lot and
turn off their engines due to the safety hazards of cars stopping on
the sides of the road and the health hazards of leaving engines
running. They also sometimes had teachers or bossy parents (maybe
they were members of the parent council or something?) knocking on car
windows reminding them to go park in the parking lot. Another measure
which seems to help somewhat include lobbying the municipal government
for a lowered speed limit (and police enforcement) near the school or
near a major school crossing.


We tried all of that at our school and for some reason, adults think that
the rules don't apply to them or they don't even read the newsletter. So the
parent volunteers that organized that committee gave up because the parents
were unwilling to change. It's a shame too because someone's kid is going to
be hit by a car.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)


  #20  
Old September 18th 05, 03:12 PM
Sue
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"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??? NO, of course not. Because them getting to work and going on with
their day is more important than the kids trying to walk to school and back.
Both the school parking lot and getting to school is a touchy nerve with me
and what really baffles me is that we are dealing with adults here and not
the kids.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)


 




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