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I wasn't sure whether to put this thread in education or parenting, so please forgive if this needs moving...
I'm curious about other families experiences with their kids walking or biking to school. How far do your children have to walk or bike? How far do you think would be too far? If you drive your children everyday, what are the reasons? Do crime concerns in your cities play a factor? Weather? Time constraints? Health issues? Distance? Hills?
My kids bike, walk, or ride the bus to school, unless the skies are particularly upset that day (freezing rain, hail, etc.) - then I drive them.
Our elementary school is 1.3 miles from home - part of that way is uphill going to school so of course it's downhill coming home . This is about a 15 minute bike ride, or a 30 minute walk.
Our middle school is only .7 miles from home. Our middle schooler rides this in about 5 - 7 minutes, and walking takes about 15 minutes.
Crime is not a big concern in our neighborhood, and we have great bike paths and lanes and trails. Our kids are average weight with no health concerns or issues, they are tall and lean for their ages. We have one hill when first starting out towards both schools, but the incline is nothing major. Our biggest concern is weather - we're in the PNW where the winters are long, cold, and wet.
Our elem school is almost 3 miles away so my kids take the bus. The middle school is about a mile or less from my "neighborhood" and most kids in my neighborhood that I see in the morning ride their bikes or hoof it down to the school, alone. Its a short walk out to the main paved road, from the neighborhood and then there is a dirt horse trail about 15 feet in from the pavement that people use for walking or bikes. We are on the same side of the paved road (its a state highway but only two lanes with a yellow double line) as the mid school so the kids never have to cross a busy street. The worst thing I have heard happen is a one-year-old bear chased a couple of kids then ran up a tree. We live about 15 miles from the foothills/bear/bobcat/mountain lion country and he was lost and disoriented. Usually the scariest thing you will encounter in daylight is a bull snake.
The most important element of walking to school is to establish the mindset that walking is a feasible way of getting from one place to another. Very few adults possess that awareness, so the children are unlikely to learn it from their parents.
Sadly, suburban planning and chain link fences are making it impossible to walk anywhere except on heavily traveled thoroughfares which have no pedestrian lanes.
There are urban schools in which it is prohibited for kids to walk to school. My cousin in suburban Detroit was in such a situation. He lived about three blocks from the school but his daughters would not be admitted if they walked. Students were allowed into the school only if they arrived by either school bus or car.
The bus rule in our district is a mile or more for elementary or middle school unless you have to cross a "dangerous" road and 2 miles for high school with the same dangerous road clause. We are about 1.5 miles from all the schools-the are all in the same area. Our kids technically ride the bus. Our oldest drove to school last year because he takes a class at another high school in our district during the day and needed to get to and from that class. Our twins will start high school this year so they will get a ride with our oldest. They rode the bus in middle school and would get a ride on occasion if they had too much stuff to carry, a special project to bring in, etc. Before we moved here they all walked to school but we only lived a block and a half away. They never got a ride to school then-even in the worst weather.
A lot of kids walk or ride their bikes here-especially in the middle school because they like to hang out with their friends in the morning and the bus doesn't get them there in time for that. We have sidewalks or bike paths on every road in our suburb so it is safe. It is a fairly small suburb and very safe so that helps too.
The most important element of walking to school is to establish the mindset that walking is a feasible way of getting from one place to another. Very few adults possess that awareness, so the children are unlikely to learn it from their parents.
Sadly, suburban planning and chain link fences are making it impossible to walk anywhere except on heavily traveled thoroughfares which have no pedestrian lanes.
There are urban schools in which it is prohibited for kids to walk to school. My cousin in suburban Detroit was in such a situation. He lived about three blocks from the school but his daughters would not be admitted if they walked. Students were allowed into the school only if they arrived by either school bus or car.
I would beg to differ that suburban planning has anything to do with kids walking to/from school and is more do to the helicopter parenting and the presumed threat that there is a child abductor on every corner. Most kids today are never allowed out of their parents sight until they leave for college and that is why they aren't allowed to walk to school. On my way to work I drive by a bus stop. There is a mom that drives her kids to the stop every day, sits at the stop in her car, with the car running and then drives home. She is 2 HOUSES away from the bus stop and her kid is in at least 6th grade-middle school bus stop. There was a girl who's mom walked her to the bus stop by our house every day--she was in HIGH SCHOOL. She graduated last year and her mom walked her to the bus stop EVERY day-poor kid.
I would beg to differ that suburban planning has anything to do with kids walking to/from school and is more do to the helicopter parenting and the presumed threat that there is a child abductor on every corner. Most kids today are never allowed out of their parents sight until they leave for college and that is why they aren't allowed to walk to school. On my way to work I drive by a bus stop. There is a mom that drives her kids to the stop every day, sits at the stop in her car, with the car running and then drives home. She is 2 HOUSES away from the bus stop and her kid is in at least 6th grade-middle school bus stop. There was a girl who's mom walked her to the bus stop by our house every day--she was in HIGH SCHOOL. She graduated last year and her mom walked her to the bus stop EVERY day-poor kid.
I think this is very true. My neighbor is like this, our sons finished 5th grade this year and I stopped walking my son to the bus stop in 3rd grade but she continued to drive her son right up through 5th and I'm curious to see if she will do it in middle school.
Our highschool is about 4 miles and the elementary school is about 3 miles so those are too far to walk IMO. The middle school is about a mile but we do have bus transportation for it also, so my DD got to decide whether to ride or walk. Most of the time she chose to walk. My son who starts this fall in middle school will probably ride the bus because he's on the lazy side but I may make him walk a couple time a week.
Something that I have wondered about is why people drive their kids to school when there is bus service. Our area has little crime, no ridculously busy intersections and good bus transportation, yet when I have to go to the schools to pick up one of my kids for an appointment after school there must be 150 cars there waiting to pick up their kids. This is out of a school of 450 to 500 so I find it very hard to believe that every one of them has an appointment or something that requires them to be picked up. It really causes a headache and potential hazardous conditions for the kids IMO because they have to weave through all those cars to find their ride then you have the walkers who have to manuver around all those cars. We all know how people get in traffic jams when they are in a hurry. The schools are always sending home letters about the afterscool pickups and what confusion and congestion they create but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Does this go on everywhere?
When my son was little was one of the few times we lived close enough for him to walk to school. Regrettably, the area was VERY high crime, and I would not have considered letting him walk. (That was why we eventually moved)
We now live in a suburb with very low crime. That said, crime does happen here. I remember one abduction here from a ball field in a park while the parents were watching the child's older brother's game nearby. The little girl was later found dead. So...I don't think we should hover/smother our children, but for those who don't feel comfortable letting them walk/ride to school, I don't fault them at all. Our children are an irreplaceable treasure.
Urban district here, buses are only used for kids that don't have a school in their own n'hood, majority of the kids are considered walkers by the district. Even so, at the elementary level many of the kids are brought by parents. Traffic is a big concern since many of the schools are on very busy streets. Also many of the schools are in or near some rough areas and parents just aren't comfortable letting their little ones walk.
We lived just a little over a mile from the school, but mine didn't walk until they were in the 4th grade. Even then they only were allowed to walk home from school (less traffic in the early afternoon) and only if they were a part of a group.
Never saw bikes, maybe because of the traffic, or more likely because a bike would have disappeared by the time school let out in the afternoon.
When I was growing up, we weren't allowed to walk to school. Not a parent's decree- by the district. For instance, I lived about a mile and a half from my middle school and the school bus was always late getting us to school. One day, my brother, a few neighbors, and I walked. When we got to school, the policeman directing traffic spotted us and sent us straight to the principal's office. I suppose there is a point- there are no sidewalks, ditches on either side of the road, and at the time there wasn't a single light or cross walk to help us across the busy streets (now there is only one).
High school was a bit further away and would have required walking across several busy intersections and an overpass over a 6 lane freeway. I know a few people who biked but they were competitive cyclists and lived on the school's side of the freeway.
I'd say a mile for grade schoolers. My 4th grader walks home about .7 mile, but I do drop him off in the AM since it works out better with my work schedule. My 6th grader walks about .5 mile and he walks both ways. We've tried biking but the sidewalks are crowded and the streets are busy for a kid's bike commute. By 4th grade they have walked solo, in 3rd grade my younger son walked with his big brother and without me. They have 1 cell phone between them, kind of as a safety net, usually they only use it to beg a ride if they're not feeling well or something. We're in a fairly urban area, but a lot of kids are walking now - some with parents, some without.
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. This is about a 15 minute bike ride, or a 30 minute walk.
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