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Never wait in the school car line again. Here’s how. For the first time in decades, a small but critical mass of children are riding their bikes safely to school again in the US. (wapo.st)
submitted 5 months ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/news@lemmy.world
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[-] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 38 points 5 months ago

The whole car line to pick up and drop off is so weird to me. I grew up taking the bus or walking or riding a bike. The only time my mom ever drove me to school was when I had a doctor/dentist appointment in the morning or if I happened to be awake early and wanted to be dropped off across the street at the grocery store to buy some candy before school. The only time I was ever picked up from school was when I was in sports after school and didn't have a bus option.

Now I drive by schools that have a mile long train of cars waiting to pick up one person, all wasting gas and time. Why aren't kids walking down the line of cars to get to their parents car earlier? Why don't they take a bus?

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 13 points 5 months ago

The kids aren't allowed to walk down the line. It's dumb as hell

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Because these days we must coddle and shield the little shits from any and all adversity, danger, self-reliance, mild discomfort, or being unsupervised for any span of time. Even a single nanosecond. If we don't, someone might get sued.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

Before we took my daughter out of school entirely and put her in online school due to excessive bullying, we did drop-off and pick-up so she wouldn't be bullied on the bus.

[-] rooroo@feddit.de 17 points 5 months ago

I’m sorry your daughter had to experience that and hope she’ll grow into a strong adult.

However, that can’t be the reason for all those parents…

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 27 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

A "bike bus," or rolling mass of happy kids and parents on bikes that builds as they travel a parent derived route to school. Basically a mini peleton of kids and parents, with parents acting as "captains, sheepdogs and cabooses."

Pretty rad, spinning up a "critical mass" though community organizing instead of each sitting in a car, waiting hours to drop kids off or pick them up.

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

You mean a caravan?

[-] KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

That's the automobile term and is quite offensive in this context. A "chain of bicycles" would be more appropriate. Stragglers would be called "spokes". You should probably edit your post and then go apologize to the bicycle sub post haste before this gets out of hand. --> /s

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

Because I'm not sure which part of this is intended to be sarcasm, I just wanted to clarify that the term "caravan" has been used before the invention of the internal combustion engine.

[-] KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I'm not sure which part of this is intended to be sarcasm

100% of it. Sorry I wasn't funnier to help you there. Story of my wife...life! I meant life!

Of note is that I did not create the "chain of bicycles" term, but did find it alluring to use here.

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Sure. The movement calls itself a "bike bus," but it strikes me as a tiny "critical mass," where riders get together and ride enmass to express solidarity and take back the streets to some degree from cars.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago

If it wasn't for the major road with no safe crossings between my kids and the school, I would gladly let them ride in. I loved that part of elementary school.

[-] silence7@slrpnk.net 25 points 5 months ago

Talk to your municipal government, and bring a bunch of other parents to do the same — this is something that can be fixed.

[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 5 months ago

I remember in middle school there being a rule that you couldn't ride your bike on school grounds (which is like, half a mile radius around the school). There was a principle who bragged about how many bikes and skateboards he took from kids.

[-] silence7@slrpnk.net 17 points 5 months ago

That's horrible.

[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 5 months ago

Agreed, teachers there were assholes. I lost some souvenirs from my childhood i can't get back, to a shithead math teacher who enjoyed making you use perfect grammer/phrasing to ask for things back (may i vs can i); if you didn't he'd hold onto it longer or indefinitely. All because I was "being distracting" by using them as a fidget toy.

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

That's when you find their address and write it on the chalkboard when they aren't in the room. Use your off hand.

[-] Melody@lemmy.one 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I, luckily, had a bulldog for a parent who took none of that kind of bullshit from my teachers. Not that I was ever particularly careless about taking things to school that I didn't want to lose.

The few times I did get something confiscated; it was truly unfair and I had the item back within a day or two...nobody particularly cared to deal with my parents being angry, and the admins all knew they would descend upon them with the fury of a thousand suns if it had truly been something that was not me being stupid or childishly careless.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

We live on a school route (Grade school on one side, High Scool on the other) and are always seeing kids walking and biking, to the degree we set up a little free library for them.

I don't think they ever stopped biking to school...

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago

If you don't regularly weed out the Little Free Library, try to do so. They are a prime location for crazy religious groups to drop off literature.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

Oh, we know! :)

[-] Drusas@kbin.run 7 points 5 months ago

Of course that's a thing.

[-] silence7@slrpnk.net 6 points 5 months ago

There has been a really big drop in walking and biking to school over several decades. Kids never stopped completely, but it's a lot less common in the US than it used to be

[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Mine has insisted on being a car rider. Okay then, well I figured out that leaving late minimizes my time in line. I am not looking to get there 30 minutes early only to pick her up five minutes faster.

She's an only child anyway, being in the last ten percent of kids picked up (never last... that feels... excessive) just means a little longer actually interacting with peers.

[-] ashok36@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

And they're all riding through my godamn yard.

I'm on the border of two neighborhoods and my house is the most convenient cut through point that shaves about two miles off a typical ride to school.

Sucks for them though. I'm putting in a fence next month.

(honestly, I could live with the bikes but now they're riding electric scooters, dirt bikes, and one asshole keeps riding his golf cart through my lawn)

[-] Drusas@kbin.run 7 points 5 months ago

It's a shame that some inconsiderate people have to go and ruin a nice shortcut for the kids, but I'd do the same.

[-] Tramort@programming.dev 4 points 5 months ago

Sell a pass

this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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