School has started and you know what that means…
 

TRAFFIC AND LOTS OF IT!

I’m always amazed when school starts how much traffic there is. I always wonder, are that many teachers driving to school? Are there that many kids driving to school or their parents driving them to school?

Either way, it adds 30 to 45 minutes to my commute.

Rant over. 😡

Wouldn't it be great if we built school systems on a scale that kids walked to school?

It is often parents driving.

This means they head there, head back, head there, head back.

4 trips per day.

I'm with you. A couple years ago the district thought it would be a great idea to put a new high school on our 2 lane road. It is only 4 miles to the interstate. When school is out 5 minute drive to the interstate. When school is in 45 minutes.

When I moved down to Atlanta in 2014, I bought a house in June. I timed my commute before making an offer. I moved in the end of July. The first week that I was there my commute was exactly as I timed it. School started the next week. My commute doubled. I estimate that summer traffic was like 30% of school year traffic. I couldn't understand how this was possible.

I asked around. Apparently lots of employers in the area let their people work from home whenever the kids are off of school to avoid childcare costs.

I don't think it's just the extra traffic from the school run, I think it's also that during the holidays people go on vacation with their kids/family so you are seeing a return to normal commuter numbers plus the school run. It's doesn't take much to make a big difference in commute time if the road systems are close to capacity.

Yea, the sheer number of school buses is astonishing. And most make multiple trips each morning and evening. Add that to the list of parents driving the snowflakes to and from, the traffic is a lot worse for people that commute. My walk down the hall to my home office is not affected, even with snow or ice.

Back in the times when I worked as an employee, I could always see the difference in the traffic from school in session or not.

I occasionally drive by the elementary school I went to in the 1960s. Back then, everybody walked to school. The furthest house would've been maybe 1 mile away - an easy walk, even in freezing weather. And it's all on sidewalks.

Today? The district is pretty much the same size but everybody comes and goes in their parents' cars. So in the morning and when school's out, the police come and shut down a lane of traffic so the parents' cars can line up for 1/4 mile or more in front of the school. I don't get it. Is society really that much more dangerous that the kids can't safely walk or what?

This is the road I live on.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1534944246.jpg

What is this "traffic" you speak of? :D

One other thing,

When I was more active in online games I could tell when school was out by the quality of the player base.

I don't know when all the school holidays are, but I could tell there was one from the horde of bad. I'd look it up, school was out that day nationally.

Kinda sad.

Mostly it is in inability to process what went wrong that I notice. People make mistakes, but not all people figure out how to learn from them.

Sure do ....

Los Angeles Teachers Take First Step Toward Strike - Teacher Beat - Education Week

I walked to school some 60 years ago but unfortunately it will never happen again. Too many perverts and crazies out there. Nowadays most parents have to meet their child at the bus. Sad state of our world.

I walked plenty of these as a kid in N. Dakota.
Never had a bicycle...walked and ran everywhere...summer - winter.
Was good for me...had a huge set of thighs for HS sports.

But is this really the case?

i had to readjust my route. i typically do this side road, but now a school bus stops at every other corner.

brutal! that stop sign flips out and i just idle.

^^^
In Gresham, OR for two years...when school let out the streets were filled with yellow.
Really ugly traffic.

There is more awareness and less instances per capita.

School has started and you know what that means…

more teachers sleeping with students?

It is not.

As a percentage of non-crazy people no, but area's with growing population density have a % more crazy people per sq/mile. My son rode his bicycle to school but my wife insisted on driving our daughter.

The road to our neighborhood meets a divided 4 lane thoroughfare. On the corner is the High School where my daughter attended. Everyone in my neighborhood needs to turn left onto the road to reach the freeway. The city bus drops kids on the opposite side making the left turn impossible for ~ 30 minutes each morning. The kids purposefully slow-walk the crossing taking up the entire green light so maybe 2-3 cars can make it through. Yep I know, first world problems, still bugs me though.

I'm childless, but if I had a young son or daughter in this society I'd be mighty protective of them.

Sometime I feel we would be better off not sending kids to school for all the snowflake training they seem to do.

The fact parents drive their kids to school and pick them up is a result of the world we live in today. As a kid, I walked to school from first to my senior year (45 minute walk in elementary). My younger sisters walked & when we were all in elementary, we walked together. With all the crazy perps out there, I don't begrudge parents driving and picking up their kids. An unfortunate fact of our times.

If I had a child I'd do my best to have them home schooled.

Yeah, those parents let their kids in front of a high school then kids kiss and huge their parents and tell a story before they set off. That's another 3 min of sitting behind them waiting. If any locals need to get to work should they touch their horn, they get the death stare and for sure the middle finger and curse worlds screaming outta their big ass SUV with rims and rubber band tires. That's how we roll round' here

People with kids, their teachers and admins seem to be more important then anyone else's time

No exaggeration, I walked to school when I was in the first grade! My older brother who was in 3rd grade walked with me.

It is just 4 blocks according to Google Earth in 2018.

Back when I was in first grade the earth was bigger and it was at least a mile. I remember it clearly! It was a long walk. And I did it barefoot and with no shirt. (really) it was in Pearl City, Hawaii, very early 1960s. They had only been a state for a few months. And yea, I was there when Hawaii became a state.

When the kids go back to school, the traffic around our island is noticeably less, restaurants are easier to get in, beach and golf courses less crowded, etc. Vacation is over!

X2 on home schooling as mentioned by Don Ro.

Shoveled 6 feet deep snow from driveway before breakfast. Then walked 4 miles to school in blizzard conditions, uphill both directions.

Barefoot.

And was glad to do it.

Yeah, we couldn't afford shoes.

But we were happy.

We were smacked if we looked unhappy.

School has started and you know what that means…
 

I went to school barefoot because I went everywhere barefoot. I was a little kid with feet as tough as elephant hide. If mom made me put on shoes to go to school I would go next door and hide my shoes behind the neighbors washing machine. Yea, it was outside. It was Hawaii. Mom gave up after the school said it was ok. They did not care.

When we moved back to the mainland in the winter I had to wear shoes and I hate it.

decadent! you had breakfast?!! and a driveway?!!!

It used to be that way until forced busing for desegregation was the hip and cool liberal thing in the 60's.

The most fatal job miscalculation I ever made was when I chose a job 3 counties over. Not a long drive (in summer) but come fall- I got caught behind school buses in three different juristictions- by the time I got to work, I was spent!