The real problem here is that the school bus model doesn't work anymore and needs to change.
I think the era of the stay-at-home parent is basically gone. The need to run the buses during the "Extenda-Day" time of before / after work, rather than 9am and 3:30pm.
I don't think people want to drive their kids to school, it's that it's frequently the only option.
It would still work if we hadn't collectively decided that kids without supervision was a crime.
Ohh I agree 100%. It's crazy that as far as I can tell you can only leave a kid at home alone when they're 16? ^[Source]
When I was a child, my 12 year old sister, watched 8 year old me.
I think a big part of it is parents needing to drive to work afterwards.
I'm a parent that walks my kids to school, It's already traffic chaos. Cars double parking. Cars parking on the wrong side of the road. It makes it way more dangerous than normal.
It's no wonder parents don't want their kids walking solo. I'd love to have a safer road crossing experience by not allowing cars so close to the school.
Could just ban cars parking or standing within 1 km from schools. Then everyone walks.
Also it's a good incentive for police to come every morning and afternoon to collect $$ from dumb rich parents.
Lol within 1km. That's like 15,000 people's homes.
All we need is meaningful enforcement of the traffic laws that already exist. But we need a system more efficient and less deadly than police.
I agree on all fronts. Anecdotally, when I encounter the worst, most dangerous drivers on a weekday morning, they typically have young kids in the car and are likely rushing to do drop off.
He said many parents are used to driving and that "asking them to change that culture … is always difficult."
Indeed
Sure but it wasn't always like this. Kids used to walk to School themselves. So cultures can change.
In isolated small towns like the one where I grew up, I'm sure they still do. Thing is, the maximum walk was about a kilometer and the population of the school was maybe 200 students, and kids coming in from outlying rural areas were still bussed. It doesn't work if you've got a large feeder school serving several towns, or a gigantic school in the middle of the city (although in theory, you could put the older city kids on public transit and lay on more busses during the crucial period—if their parents would let them out of their sight). So the problem might be a compound of incorrect infrastructure choices and parental paranoia.
Much of Europe has never had school busses, as far as I know. I don't think Japan does either, at least not for middle school and older. How do they handle things?
Maybe in cities, but that doesn't really apply to most of Ontario
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