Saving fuel- put your kid on the freaking school bus!!!!

[Wcross]

I passed by an elementary school the other day right after they ended the day. There were 50+ cars waiting on line to pick up the children. 50 cars idling, getting 0mpg waiting while all the confused little children try to figure out which SUV is mommy's.
If this happens at a majority of schools across the country, how much gas is wasted so that little johnny gets door to door service?

My parents never drove me to/from school, I either took the bus or walked. Nobody else had a daily ride either, the buses were full.

[Bob3]

1. A lot of school districts have cut bus service

as a money saving device. It's the I want it but I don't wanna pay for it problem that is pretty common in this country.

[getmeouttahere]

2. Maybe they don't have money for busses...

thanks to budget cuts to education. But if there a lot of SUV's driven by the parents, that just illustrates once again this sickness that this country has, this unwillingness to pay a little more in taxes now (and make the rich pay their fair share) so you don't have to pay a lot to a private company later. Especially a private company who is now responsible for a massive relief effort that has failed miserably.

[cbear70]

3. thats how its done here

We are in Iowa, we drive or if we are able to walk, we do that. My daugther's school is not within walking distance and we don't have buses. They are reserved for the people who live in the rural areas or the disabled children . You can pay for service but the price is very high, so we just drive her. I so badly want to walk but its too far.

[elehhhhna]

4. Toots found some pals and became a "walker" yesterday.

The middle schooler rides with our neighbor--who works at the school.

Otherwise I was going to org. a carpool.

The line of SUV's (takes from 3:00 'til 3:30 to load the carriders, 5 cars at a time) behind our school every day is ridiculous.

[gatorboy]

5. I drive my son to school

mostly because he is young and I always shuddered at the thought of him being around the older kids (we all know how they talk)

But I have been considering putting him on the bus to conserve gas. I am so torn...

[katsy]

6. We have a problem with that in florida...

bus drivers stop and drop kids off across large busy roads and kids get run over.

Really. :shrug:

[getmeouttahere]

8. Where are the crosswalk people?

don't tell me, budget cuts right?

Just one more way for BushCo to force people to drive unnecessarily, thus using more gas, thus putting more money in the pockets of his cronies.

[katsy]

12. Budget cuts.

No crosswalk people.

:thumbsup:

[jedicord]

7. But, see, it's not cool riding in the "loser cruiser".

:sarcasm:

Seriously, that's how it is with the folks around here. But my son has to deal with the "trauma", because I agree 100% with what you're saying and 'cause I said so!

[Democrat 4 Ever]

13. Now days the well-to-do crowd in my town wouldn't be caught dead letting

their little darlings ride the "Twinkie" to school. Just not done. Über un-cool. (If you ride the bus you must be *gasp!* poor). A fate worse than death to these little clones. Much nicer to drop them off in their SUVs or buy the kid their own brand new car when they hit 16.

My children rode the yellow Twinkie until they got of driving age and then they and their friends carpooled due to after school jobs. Even then they knew how expensive gas was on their wallets.

[Kber]

9. While I agree in principle

our district provides no service for families who live within 2 miles of the school.

I wasn't willing to have my kindergarten aged son walk almost 2 miles to school (crossing at least one busy street and several less busy ones). And since I have to work for a living, I couldn't take the time to walk the almost 4 miles with him. (2 miles there and 2 back)

He's in third grade now and will probably walk to school now (we've been practicing this summer), but I'll still pick him up from aftercare since, at 6:00 pm, it's awfully dark and there's no crossing guard.

They cut the bus service back last year - either that or the music program. What are you going to do, right?

edited to add that I don't own or drive a minivan or suv - we have a very fuel efficient hatchback. So there!

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. Our district just reinstated bus service. Wcross, many districts

don't bus any kids...and lots only bus those who live in the furthest reaches.

[nonconformist]

11. I'm considering doing that myself.

Of course, the school system is already feeling the pain of increased gas prices themselves.

[cmd]

14. In my former district this was a huge problem

98% of the kids had door to door bus service. The others lived in town and could easily walk to schoo. I would estimate that 75% of the families used that service, the others didn't want their kids on the buses. The parents would arrive at school half an hour before dismissal and congregate in the hallways to gossip. When the halls got so congested that we could not conduct a normal dismissal, they were told they had to wait outside. It then became a problem just getting the kids through that crowd to their buses.