This didn't affect me much while I was working since I would usually, well, be working.

But now that I have some freedom (ie - to play chess in different locations, and other things during the "work" hours), I'm increasingly annoyed by school traffic.

I have schools (elementary (multiple), middle, high) in the N,W,E directions from my home. These schools have various start and end times during the day. At these times, for about 30 minutes traffic is just fucking ridiculous. And of course these kids can't walk a half a mile or mile or so. No, they need to be picked up by mommy in their huge suv's. So these residential streets just get jam packed w/ these huge suvs.

Who the fuck allowed these school designs to happen? Surely this can't be a surprise to the city / street planners. Why don't kids walk at least a half mile these days? I used to walk a mile and half to/from the school bus stop (no joy when it was winter snow/rain/wind - the conditions here are tropical compared to that).

So now I sit trying to memorize the staggered time slots when these daily debacles occur (both drop and pick times). An hour or two in the morning and again in the afternoon.

The only free direction is S. It's faster to go round about an extra 5-10 miles than to go through the debacles the idiots in street / school planning created.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88: And of course these kids can't walk a half a mile or mile or so.

A half a mile? Hell, that would be akin to a marathon for the kids around these parts. They can’t walk a few blocks to school. In a town maybe 10 blocks by 10 blocks, these little urchins have to take a fargin bus to school because they are too lazy to walk or ride a bike.

Just for grins I pulled up walking distance from my parents home to my old Elementary School. It was 1 mile one-way. And yes, like you, we actually walked to school.

There was an adult that controlled the light on the major 4-lane road we had to cross and I don't recall anyone ever getting hurt.

Walking was commonplace, I think, in my days. One year of HS, I had to either walk 2 miles each way (but only rain, no snow) or take a public bus (2 transfer) - both taking about 45 minutes. I usually walked since it was the same amount of time and more reliable.

School bus driver here. How about putting your little treasures on the bus, instead of driving them???My HS route starts at 7AM, and I have them to school by about 7:40. The traffic in front of the school is plain stupid. I'm dropping off about 25 kids and am held up by the soccer mom dropping off one. My elementary route starts ab 8:05 am, and I have them to school by about 8:40. Both schools are on the other side of town from the schools. About 55 little kids. What's really annoying is trying to navigate around the landscapers, garbage trucks, Amazon drivers, and construction vehicles who love to park their trucks on both sides of the roads. Then of course nobody will let you out from the side streets. I guess they forgot that they once had kids in school.

Our local elementary school does not provide transportation to kids who live within a mile of the school. Parents either have to drive them, or they walk. Quite a few of them walk, some accompanied by parents and others alone.

Part of my day shift duties involve monitoring the school crossing to make sure it's safe for the kids and that drivers don't disregard the crossing guard. I've written a surprising number of tickets to impatient or inattentive drivers who don't stop when directed. I've also gotten to know the kids and greeting my "walkers" every morning is probably the brightest part of my work day.

Yeah, it gets busy and there's a lot of congestion at dropoff and pickup time. There's also roads that can be taken to avoid the school altogether, and if I'm not working that's what I try to do.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

Part of my day shift duties involve monitoring the school crossing to make sure it's safe for the kids and that drivers don't disregard the crossing guard. I've written a surprising number of tickets to impatient or inattentive drivers who don't stop when directed.

I am always amazed at the number of School Zone violations I write… to parents who are dropping their kids off at the school. Everything from “just” speeding to fail to yield to one absolute peach who caught a reckless driving charge for passing on the sidewalk. While also driving on a revoked license. With a current warrant for fail to appear on a DUI charge.

Awesome stuff!

Bill R

Rhinos, hippos, and Cape buffalo have got nothing on those mommies in the big SUV’s during kiddie pickup. Do not violate their rules. Truly the most dangerous land mammal.

^^^Ah. The infamous High Capacity Assault Vehicle

In the ancient time when I was in school, you were dropped off the bus at the corner nearest to your house. Now, the damn bus drops off the kids at their driveways. If you are behind it when this insanity unfolds, you get to stay stuck there until the bus empties out.

No bus I you are under two miles from the school here. The roads will be clogged if the students walked as well. Crossing guards, slow poke kids, etc.

My favorite that I forget to avoid occasionally is the bus that runs up a 4 lane state highway. Normally you zip through at 55mph, but not when the bus is making four stops along a its five mile section. The highway connects a WalMart distribution center to the interstate, so those trucks are in both lanes and no body can get past the bus. Of course the students can’t be at the bus stop waiting; can’t tell you how many times a kid comes running down the road to catch the waiting bus.

In my day, I can tell you I watched the bus pull away as I was running down the road maybe twice. I didn’t take long to learn that lesson. It was a long walk through the woods and then the cornfield to school.

The road I live on is 1-mile long. The high school bus (not little kids) makes 4-5 stops.

Since times have changed it seems like many people don't think it is safe anymore to let kids walk to school.
Perverts and stupid drivers that pose a danger are every where.

It's a different world then what most of us grew up in.

I would suggest you adapt and not be a curmudgeon. You’re retired; they’re just starting out. If I had a kid, I wouldn’t let them walk to and from school in this day and age; there are a whole lot more monsters out and about in the world.

My house is in a corner where the school bus stops. Some kids get dropped off in cars and others just walk. In the afternoon, some cars park on the roadside waiting for the kids. My dogs apparently know the time as they never fail to signal they want to be let out when the children are there in the morning and afternoon.

quote:

Originally posted by stylophiles:

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

Part of my day shift duties involve monitoring the school crossing to make sure it's safe for the kids and that drivers don't disregard the crossing guard. I've written a surprising number of tickets to impatient or inattentive drivers who don't stop when directed.

I am always amazed at the number of School Zone violations I write… to parents who are dropping their kids off at the school. Everything from “just” speeding to fail to yield to one absolute peach who caught a reckless driving charge for passing on the sidewalk. While also driving on a revoked license. With a current warrant for fail to appear on a DUI charge.

Awesome stuff!

Bill R

I say this entirely as the biggest anti-government member here. Write more.

Yes. The hypocritical bitches who need to pick up / drop off kids for safety reasons and who need an big suv to do so (again, for safety) are the same bitches who speed, drive recklessly w/o consideration of others and don't obey common driving etiquette and laws (ie - STOP signs mean stop and are different from YIELD signs).

Write more tickets. Err on the side of caution (meaning give a ticket when in doubt).

Our schools will only bus them if they're two miles or further. My kids were three houses away from the 2 mile mark. For elementary, I drove and dropped them off. For middle school which was on the street four houses away, they walked. For high school was was also 1.9 miles away (it's across from the elementary school), they walked.

My high school was 6 miles away, I biked when weather permitted or took a public bus during inclement weather.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Err on the side of caution (meaning give a ticket when in doubt).

Under no circumstances am I going to write a ticket that I can't fully stand behind in court under oath.

Ultimately, it's all about protecting the kids over writing tickets. I'm not trying to trick people into committing violations...I just want them to use extra caution in and around the school. I park my marked car in clear view by the crosswalk, and for 99% of people that in conjunction with the crossing guard and all the flashing school signs is enough of a reminder to be extra careful. If nobody does anything that deserves a ticket, that's a win for everybody. But if after all that they're still not going to follow the rules then they've more than earned it and I'm happy to hand them out.

A couple of years back we had an issue with people regularly passing a school bus that was dropping off a bunch of middle-school kids on the road in front of the elementary school every afternoon. I sat out there and wrote a few tickets to inattentive drivers who went past the bus when the sign was out. After a few of those, I started thinking what are we doing here? If the goal is to write tickets then this is working, but it's not really making the kids any safer. I talked to the transportation people from the school and convinced them to have the bus turn into the school parking lot so they were out of the road when they dropped the kids off. It added about 100 feet and less than a minute to the bus route, but made everything safer for everybody.

The other thing I've run into more times than I expected is old people just cruising on through the stop sign or past the crossing guard with a 1000 yard stare. Then they don't pull over for me for several blocks with the lights and sirens going. Not intentionally resisting, not impaired by substances, just 95 years old and completely unable to process the world around them. I don't want to hammer an elderly person with fines, but I also don't want them hitting or killing somebody. Our state has a process to petition the BMV to conduct a driving skills review, and I've had to fill a few of those out as a result of working the crosswalk.