Parents who drive their kids to school\bus stops might be the worst people ever

[vi edit]

In my old city, when I grew up, there weren't buses, unless you lived outside the city. You wanted to get to school? You walked. (Gasp! The horror!). I remember walking my girlfriend and her friends home after school my junior and senior year. 28 blocks. Started with a group of about 10 friends, and by the time we got 20 blocks away, it was down to 3 or 4.

4.2 miles from my house to my 6 year old's school. And it's only that short if you go direct and cross over one of the busiest intersections in a city of 400,000+ people.

Walking just isn't an option. My city intentionally districts neighborhoods in ways that distribute income across schools. They try to avoid creating "rich" schools and "poor" by doing it. And as a by product, even though there is a school that is 1.5 miles away from us, we aren't districted for it.

 

[Blackjack200]

4.2 miles from my house to my 6 year old's school. And it's only that short if you go direct and cross over one of the busiest intersections in a city of 400,000+ people.

Walking just isn't an option. My city intentionally districts neighborhoods in ways that distribute income across schools. They try to avoid creating "rich" schools and "poor" by doing it. And as a by product, even though there is a school that is 1.5 miles away from us, we aren't districted for it.

No one should be driving their kids 4.2 miles to school. It's fucking ridiculous that they will not drop off kids without parents present. 6 years old is old enough to walk a block or two from the bus stop to the house.

In elementary school (3/4 of a mile from home) we got a ride school in the morning and walked home in the afternoon. In junior high (also 3/4 mile) we walked both ways, and in high school (3 miles) we took a bus. The bus stop was more than half a mile from our house, and since we were the first picked up every morning (7:30 AM) and the last to be dropped off, we got to see everyone else picked up and dropped off right in front of their door. That was really fucking galling.

Edit: And I know it's cliche, but we really did walk in the snow sometimes. 20 years ago, if there was only an inch of snow, school stayed open.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I used to commute to work by bicycle and my route ran past a local high school and even though the high school was off that road people would stop, in the bike lane, to drop their kids off. I even saw them letting their kids out from the middle lane on a 3 lane road (I almost got door'd by one of these fucks).

I would call and complain to the local Sheriff's office, they would patrol for a few days, write some tickets and it would get better for a few weeks and then they would be right back to the same bad habits.

There is no bussing here... or very little anyway.

 

[Ns1]

As long as there are no cyclists I do not see a problem here.

 

[Jeff7]

Question: At the start of the day, some people will park their cars in the street, blocking a full lane of traffic, and wait a good long time before the kids get out of the car. Assume that there are side streets available with sufficient space for parallel parking.

My (limited) experience with such dropoffs is that you either find a side-street to properly pull over, or if that's not available, then the person leaving the car is to be ready to quickly leave the car and shut the door so that the driver can quickly leave and not back up traffic.

But there's a line waiting outside this school each day.
Some people will pull up, kid gets out, parent leaves. It's done pretty quickly.


Do people just not give a damn?

 

[Imported]

I can't get to work without passing atleast 2 schools. Its a mad house.

 

[rudeguy]

The worst offense to me are the parents who drive the little snowflakes to the bus stop just up the street, no more than a quarter mile (with sidewalks, even!), if that. No wonder so many kids these days are little butterballs, if mommy and daddy won't even make 'em walk a few steps.

No..the worst are the ones who do that then park to watch the kids get on the bus. My old neighborhood was like that. The bus stop was at the end of the road and you couldn't get out in the morning because of all the parents parked like idiots, playing on the iPhones. It pissed me off to no end.

 

[JulesMaximus]

The idiots would let their kids out in the right lane, the bike lane, the middle lane. I saw this on a daily basis. This is a 50 mph road.

 

[rudeguy]

The idiots would let their kids out in the right lane, the bike lane, the middle lane. I saw this on a daily basis. This is a 50 mph road.

the simple answer is to not ride your bike on a busy road and mess up traffic for all the people trying to drop their kids off at school.


/troll

 

[Ns1]

The idiots would let their kids out in the right lane, the bike lane, the middle lane. I saw this on a daily basis. This is a 50 mph road.

uhm, that's what the bike lane is for bro. Most certainly the lane is not for scofflaw cyclists blowing by double & triple parked cars dropping off their kids in the middle of the street.

 

[etrigan420]

I've taken my 8th grader to school numerous times. The school is fairly new and they actually have a really efficient drive through system on one side of the school.

My daughters grade school is the stereotypical nightmare with regards to picking up / dropping off, so we avoid it as much as possible. Plus she enjoys walking to the bus stop with her friends.

Youngest son is considered "Special Needs", so the short bus picks him up and drops him off right at our front door.

I think the only hard and fast rule in our district is that Kinder kids have to be met at the bus stop by a parent or guardian.

There are some parents who drive their kids to the bus stop (1/4 mile), but they stay off of the main road and are generally a non-issue. (The only ones that piss me off are the ones on bicycles...which I try to hit at every opportunity, 'cause fuck bicycles.)

 

[JulesMaximus]

uhm, that's what the bike lane is for bro. Most certainly the lane is not for scofflaw cyclists blowing by double & triple parked cars dropping off their kids in the middle of the street.

The bike lane is not for cars to stop in to let their kids out for school. Cops will ticket a driver for that in fact, but they don't do it enough IMO.

 

[Ns1]

The bike lane is not for cars to stop in to let their kids out for school. Cops will ticket a driver for that in fact, but they don't do it enough IMO.

Did I miss an </sarcasm> at the end of that post? If a car pulls over into the bike lane, lets their kid out, AND doors you, that's gotta be worth like 50 points right?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I didn't have buses growing up at all. They were for special events and rented on a case by case basis.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Did I miss an </sarcasm> at the end of that post? If a car pulls over into the bike lane, lets their kid out, AND doors you, that's gotta be worth like 50 points right?

My bad, I'm a little tired today.

 

[1prophet]

The worst offense to me are the parents who drive the little snowflakes to the bus stop just up the street, no more than a quarter mile (with sidewalks, even!), if that. No wonder so many kids these days are little butterballs, if mommy and daddy won't even make 'em walk a few steps.

1st world problems, school is practically taken for granted by these spoiled brats who hate going to school anyway.:biggrin:

Meanwhile in other parts of the world kids have to make an effort to go to school, no special snowflakes there.

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/kids-risking-their-lives-to-reach-school.html

For most parents and kids, crossing the street to catch the school bus is perhaps the riskiest part of the school run. But take a look at these Chinese schoolchildren from the village of Genguan.

Everyday, these young kids walk along a precarious path carved by the side of a cliff, as they make their way to class in Bijie, in southwest China's Guizhou Province. Banpo Elementary School is located halfway up a mountain and the path to it winds through treacherous hillside passes and tunnels hewn out of the rock.

The pebble-covered footpath is less than 0.5 meters wide, which means the children have to walk single file and press themselves into the side of the mountain if someone wants to squeeze past.

This footpath was created 40 years ago as an irrigation ditch and although there is another safer route, but taking this means the children have to spend two hours to walk to school. The only assurance for parents is that Headmaster Xu Liangfan accompanies the 49 kids to school.

rest at link

 

[Pulsar]

I didn't use to think this but then I saw the chaos that descended upon my commute when a school that didn't offer bus service opened up with limited access routes. The amount of speeding, illegal u-turns, red light running etc was mind boggling not to mention detrimental to my commute time

So I take the long way to work which, unfortunately, runs close to another school. I pass car after car 'parked' badly by various bus stops turning two lane roads into one lane roads so snowflake doesn't have to wait outside. (Depending on what school they go to they are 1 to 2 miles away from the school). Most do this every day regardless of temperature or lack of rain

I encountered a new one this morning though. The car in front of me stopped in the middle of the road and the woman got out to flag down the bus going in the opposite direction. They talked for a bit and then the woman motioned to her car. Two kids got out and got on the bus. Meanwhile some 15-20 cars backed up behind her. WE WERE HALF A FUCKING MILE FROM THE SCHOOL!!!!! Seriously? You feel like you need to cause a traffic backup so your kids can get on a bus in the middle of a road?

There are many days I dislike living between two school campuses...

(yes I know I could move)

You don't know what was going on. My wife has had to chase down the bus on several occasions when the school messed up and didn't have them stay after for various things - in one case we had to get them to the hospital before a relative passed away.

Do you have kids? I'm curious.

 

[Ruptga]

As a former school bus driver, I've seen some shit. I won't say "never again", but I'd really have to need the money. I was so burnt out by the last year I did that, I was hard pressed to give a fuck even to preserve my employment. Lucky me, they were so in need of drivers (and everyone else) because of turnover that the office staff gave no fucks either. I showed up and ran the routes without loss of life or limb, and that was good enough for them.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I live near a school, at around 3pm my street is total chaos because of that. School busses left and right, soccer mom vans parked left and right, people blocking driveways, horns beeping, you name it.

I can't help but look at that and consider how much energy we waste as a society day after day after day doing these repetitious things like driving back and forth to the same place every day. It's madness!

 

[Red Squirrel]

The idiots would let their kids out in the right lane, the bike lane, the middle lane. I saw this on a daily basis. This is a 50 mph road.

Wow that's a lot of room to drive, this is more what it looks like here:



They did build a sidewalk recently though on the other side of the street so that will at least get the kids off the road. This whole area was a deathtrap for them before.

 

[kt]

I live near a school, at around 3pm my street is total chaos because of that. School busses left and right, soccer mom vans parked left and right, people blocking driveways, horns beeping, you name it.

I can't help but look at that and consider how much energy we waste as a society day after day after day doing these repetitious things like driving back and forth to the same place every day. It's madness!

I also live near schools (high school, junior high and elementary all in the same row) and every day there's always some fucktards blocking my driveway. Even though there are signs that say no parking did not stop them. Fortunately, I found a quick way to remedy this situation. Every morning when I am about to leave for work, I would manually turn on my sprinkler to run for about 1 minute, just enough time for me to get out. Of course, this caused a lot of confusion for these fucktards when I leave early or late in the morning as they tried to figure out what time my sprinkler comes on. I think they finally figure out what was going on though and cease stopping in front of my driveway.

 

[Exterous]

You don't know what was going on. My wife has had to chase down the bus on several occasions when the school messed up and didn't have them stay after for various things - in one case we had to get them to the hospital before a relative passed away.

I'm struggling to find a good reason to stop in the middle of the road - exit your vehicle and flag down a bus 0.5 miles from school so your kids can get on the bus and ride it 0.5 miles to school. The whole process of getting the kids on the bus took about as long as driving to the school would have

 

[dainthomas]

Excellent article in the Oregonian from a while ago about this very issue:

http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting...eph_rose_hey_mom_and_dad_en.html#incart_river

 

[ElFenix]

*Parent with kids here*

I can't really excuse the idiocy at bus stops. But I can speak on the pickup situations. Don't blame the parents on that. Schools are really to blame here. The schools where I'm at have *zero* parking space. There's enough for about 8 cars to park on any given day.

What they make you do is come through a drive through loop that passes in front of the school. I have to show a "student pick up card" identifying myself as a parent of my kid before she's allowed to get in a car. Now take this times 100 cars. It takes time. It takes space. And due to the nature of how schools are placed in most neighborhoods there just isn't a good way to redirect that much backed up traffic without being a pain to the residents of the area. Combine that with stupidity and impatience and it's just a bad recipe for vehicular shenanigans.

school near me has a big long pickup and dropoff driveway. they built a covered walkway that runs out along it. but that wasn't good enough so parents demanded that snowflake needs to be dropped off in front because it might be raining every once in a while. so all the parents with apparently nothing to do go out in their giant land barge station wagons and park in front of the school, spilling well out onto and down the street, for an hour before school lets out, idling their cars on blue ribbon 70 degree days before going home to complain about the price of gas and how obama isn't doing anything about it.

lame.

 

[Ruptga]

I think the best solution I saw was here, at least in terms of making bad streets work for the best. They open two gates to their asphalt playground (in the back), busses go through, then they bring cars in several rows at a time. Each car also has a numbered placard in the windshield, so it's clear which kid goes where.

I don't think they always did it that way though. I drove out of there on the first day of school a few years ago, and there were cars literally everywhere that was paved and it was practically gridlocked. One dumb fuck in particular was taking up as much space as possible near a vital intersection, even after I asked her to move. She didn't move but she did get a scratch in her paint, unfortunately for both of us. My boss didn't really hold it against me though, the circumstances were just awful.