Walking my grandkid to/from school, it absolutely floors me how many dangerous drivers there are around kids.
In a matter of maybe 10 minutes, I’ve witnessed:
- at least a dozen cars illegal parked. It’s not the parking that bothers me, but the fact that these cars are often parked on turns or just before intersections, making it impossible for other drivers to see small kids.
- Several people not stopping at stop signs, including at the exit of the school parking lot.
- One car, who completely blew through a stop sign at the front of the school, made a left turn and nearly hit a guy walking his kid. The driver didn’t even slow down.
- Super fucking huge pickup trucks parked in the school parking lot, but their long ass hangs well over the sidewalk near the kindergarden area, leaving very little space to use the sidewalk.
- Speeding. Obviously, you have to have speeding in school zones, right?
This happens every day, during drop off and pick up. I was told that bylaw were “cracking down”, but no, they aren’t. If they were, our municipality would generate $5000 in fines each and every day at every school.
The other day, I rode my bike past another school as kids were getting out. Not only was their massive parking lot completely full, but they had blocked the bike trail (WITH PYLONS) to make space for more cars. Then as I entered onto the road, cars were illegally parked along the road and on a bridge for a like 100m. Making it extremely difficult and dangerous to cross because they blocked visibility for me and other drivers on the road.
I asked the cross guard if these students all lived out of town, requiring every parent to drive them home; he obviously didn’t get my joke.
Seriously, fuck cars. All of them!
It’s also a problem that’s getting worse. When I was in school in the 2000s, like 80% of the kids took the bus and half of the remaining ones (like me) came by bike. Now my niece goes to the same school and she’s one of very few kids still taking the bus there. The schoolyard turns into a chaotic mess of SUVs every morning. I guess it goes hand in hand with helicopter parenting becoming normalized.
I drop off my kiddo in the morning because it is a 10 minute ride and is on my way to work while the bus is a 50 minute ride. She rides the bus home in the afternoon, because time is less of an issue.
All of the schools she has gone to have organized dropoff routes so everyone gets dropped off on the passenger side and it basicslly works like a drive through. Far safer than the convoluted mess that I got to watch as a bus rider when I was a kid.
Wish we had better public transportation so dedicated school buses were not so necessary.
@spankmonkey @PonyOfWar I caught a public bus to high school. To get an extra 20m of sleep I caught the one that didn’t go into the school and stopped on the wrong side of the road 1m before school started. To not be late we’d all walk out across the 4 lane road without looking. Cars will just stop.
After someone was rear ended the stop was removed.
Classic: punish the pedestrians and transit riders for car driver fuckups.
Yeah, cycling to elementary school on my own was one of my favorite childhood memories.
Unfortunately, nobody told me it was illegal to ride on the sidewalk, so I didn’t realize I was being an asshole until I was a teenager.
You weren’t being an asshole, you were breaking an unjust law. You were a hero, like Robin Hood.
Nah, bicycles belong on roads.
Yes, after cars are banned. Bicycles, especially bicycles carrying children, are allowed on sidewalks until then.
Sidewalks are more dangerous for bicycles. Especially for children!
Cars can’t see you, and the accident rates are much higher for bicycles getting hit by cars when they ride on the sidewalk
IIRC in my area kids can legally ride on sidewalks which makes sense.
I guess if you like dead kids?
It also comes with cost of living growing to insane proportions. Fewer people can afford to live near their preferred school, some portion of which won’t ride the bus. More students living further away will tend to increase demand for transportation and the increasing length of the bus ride will worsen the ratio of car to bus riders.
With that said, I’ve seen the insane long line of cars waiting to enter a school and thought how glad I was not being in that line.