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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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I walked to school alone starting in year 6 (10 years old, for any non-Brits visiting the community) back in the 90s. Look at the crime rates and you can see it was more dangerous back then than it is now, but walking adoption seems to have gone backwards.
So many parents drive their kids from door to door now, and for what? The sheer volume of traffic on the roads during term times vs. school holidays is crazy, and of course they’re all massive 4x4s.
Where I live there is a high school a block away in one direction, and a middle school a block away in the other direction. School starting and ending is just a massive cluster fuck of parents picking up or dropping off their kids. It's so weird.
Same here although i cycled. Was about a mile each way. Fairly low traffic. I imagine it's way more traffic now so that might be part of it.
I think you're right that crime rates are lower now. But crime does still happen, so I can understand parents wanting to keep their kids safe.
As the article points out, rates of child abduction/murder are so low that it makes as much sense as not walking to school for fear of being struck by lightning.
Fair point, but I wouldn't want to be the tallest thing in a field when there's a thunder storm nearby. Maybe it depends on the area you live in as well. Some areas will be very safe, so letting your kids walk to school in those areas wouldn't be so bad, but other areas might not be so safe.