Kids don't have to wait outside for the bus anymore?

[lxskllr]

It's not impossible to understand the fears of parents, there are monsters out there who can't get on the bus. Then there's this:

Don't Google "school bus kids tossed" if you're a parent, you don't want to know. Protecting our offspring is instinctual, and virtually impossible.

There's no such thing as "risk free", and it's unreasonable to try to make it so. Get rid of the preponderance of danger, and call it good. Shit's still gonna happen, and that's life. It isn't a call to go crying to government wanting "something" done.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Back in "your day" there werent assloads of mass shootings and kidnappings.

Its not a nanny state. Parents today have very good reasons to fear for their childs lives.

Shootings and Kidnappings have been on the decline since like the 70s .....
There are less shootings and kidnappings nowadays than there were in the past.

The amount of news you are flooded with has increased, but, reality has gotten safer.

 

[vi edit]

Yeah stopping at every house seems far over the top. I live in a neighborhood of about 500 houses and over 5 miles of roads. There are around 5 stops that your kids kids can get picked up at.

As for me, my grade school kids are picked up at 6:50 in the morning. That's freaking early for a 5 year old. It's pitch black out at that time. I'll walk them to the stop myself and my wife will pick me up on the way, or if it's raining or cold out we'll just park on the side of the road, drop them off when the bus comes and then head into work.

On the flip side, if they ride the bus home, kindergarten and 1st grade kids won't even be let off the bus unless a pre-approved adult is there waiting for them. No ID on the adult, your kid stays on the bus and goes back to the school. The bus brings them home around 2:50 in the afternoon. It's not exactly a convenient time for the normal 9-5 working schmuck.

 

[KillerCharlie]

I see the same. If I get behind a bus in the morning I have to take an alternate route. I've seen one stop 3 times in 1 block. One time two groups of kids were waiting literally two houses apart, and the bus completely stopped for both groups.

I think the minimum when I was a kid was 4 blocks between stops, and that was in a state where winters are 50 degrees colder than here.

 

[MrSquished]

The bus brings them home around 2:50 in the afternoon. It's not exactly a convenient time for the normal 9-5 working schmuck.

That's why daycare should be subsidized.

 

[vi edit]

That's why daycare should be subsidized.

They do an aftercare program at their public school that's about half the price of a private one. So yeah, it is subsidized to an extent.

 

[pete6032]

Ah yes, the next generation is being treated differently than ours, we should all be angry about that!

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ah yes, the next generation is being treated differently than ours, we should all be angry about that!

We maybe should be angry that the busses are clogging up the roads increasing traffic delays.

 

[Paratus]

Hasn't been my experience locally - BUT - what I can say is that there is a SHITLOAD of people that now drop-off and pick-up their kids directly at the school. The queue to pick up the kids is so bad that 30 minutes before school is out the line spills out onto the street.

I find that to be pathetic. It's the whole "Child rapists are everywhere!" brigade that made this happen. Same goes with parents waiting at the bus stop until their kids are picked up.... da fuq? I would say it's just different times, but what is happening is just pathetic and overall not healthy for society as we coddle our children more and more.

It’s idiotic but necessarily for the reasons you think.

When my son was in Kindergarten we had bus service. Didn’t use it much since the wife and I both work and he went to after school care. However on a day when my wife was home early she waited out at the end of the sidewalk two doors down from where the bus dropped off. The bus driver refused to let him off until she walked down there because “it wasn’t safe for kindergarteners and 1st graders to walk unaccompanied.”

When I was a kid I walked 1/2 mile each way to elementary school and back.

Fast forward to the following year and after a “safety assessment”, (read that as budget cuts), they suddenly decided any kid within 2 miles of school could walk, including kindergarteners, and then cancelled bus service district wide.

Later they changed the rules again and now only 3rd graders and above would be allowed to walk home by themselves. K-2nd must have a parent, adult, or older sibling pick them up. (The only other option is to file a waiver of liability with the school to allow younger kids to walk home.)

So in our area this is why you see 800+ parents decend on the schools twice a day. It’s to save money on bussing, (at the cost of traffic, time and fuel for anyone in the area).

 

[bradly1101]

There's no such thing as "risk free", and it's unreasonable to try to make it so. Get rid of the preponderance of danger, and call it good. Shit's still gonna happen, and that's life. It isn't a call to go crying to government wanting "something" done.

Definitely no seatbelts on buses dammit! The cost!

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Speaking only for buses in my area, the kids wait outside. That being said along many routes there is no such thing as a bus stop anymore. Instead of all the kids from a neighborhood congregating at a single spot that covers an area of several blocks in each direction the bus stops at pretty much every corner. Kids don't walk more than a half a block to get to their location and at each corner only 1 or 2 kids get on or off. When I was going to school a single spot served my entire neighborhood. About 15 kids used it and we came from as many as 3 or 4 blocks away. If it was raining we walked there carrying an umbrella, if it was cold we bundled up. Nobody's parents dropped them off at the stop or picked them up in a car. We all walked every day and nobody thought there was anything onerous about it.

 

[IronWing]

Definitely no seatbelts on buses dammit! The cost!

It's not the cost; it's the liability. If a child doesn't buckle up and is injured, is the bus driver liable? How does a bus driver insure that all the children are buckled up? How much time will this take?

 

[lxskllr]

Definitely no seatbelts on buses dammit! The cost!

I don't think the number of fatal bus accidents warrant seatbelts. Aside from the cost, there's the compliance issues that were raised earlier. Seatbelts on a bus are about on par with making people wear a harness and clip off to walk steps. Would it save lives? Probably, but it isn't worth the expense, hassle, and accountability issues.

 

[gill77]

Seems like the school bus thing is just one small aspect of a much bigger problem. George Carlin has the answer, but is is NSFW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ltst32Dcps

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

In my neighborhood they seem to go by streets, so each street has some designated house they stop in front of. The corners are all full of drainage ditches so the kids would have to be in the road, which is a bad idea when icy. Unfortunately this means that of course, they stand in front of my goddamn house, in my goddamn driveway, every goddamn morning. Thankfully the parents are smart enough to herd the little sheep out of the road before I come powersliding into the street.

 

[nitsuj3580]

What is "decently busy" . I live on a busy state road (45 mph speed limit but everyone goes over that). The bus picks up my kids on the road and yes, causes some backups. I try to be courteous and make sure my kids are out there before the bus comes but we hang out well away from the road until the bus stops. I've had my mailbox and garbage can clipped a couple times or come out to tire tracks at the edge of the grass. The shoulder of the road is maybe a couple feet so I can't figure out how people are that bad at driving.

However, if door to door bus service is happening in typical housing developments, instead of the kids gathering at a few spots, then I agree, that is crazy.

 

[pmv]

Hasn't been my experience locally - BUT - what I can say is that there is a SHITLOAD of people that now drop-off and pick-up their kids directly at the school. The queue to pick up the kids is so bad that 30 minutes before school is out the line spills out onto the street.

I find that to be pathetic. It's the whole "Child rapists are everywhere!" brigade that made this happen. Same goes with parents waiting at the bus stop until their kids are picked up.... da fuq? I would say it's just different times, but what is happening is just pathetic and overall not healthy for society as we coddle our children more and more.

Are you sure its just about the 'child rapists', and not about fear of traffic danger from all the other parents driving distractedly while dropping their own children off at school? Seems to me that driving the children to school has a self-perpetuating element to it.

 

[whm1974]

So are kids being more pampered these days? Back in my day most kids walked or rode their bikes to school. Although a few did ride the public buses.

For some reason I see less kids riding their bikes if they even have one.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Back in "your day" there werent assloads of mass shootings and kidnappings.

Its not a nanny state. Parents today have very good reasons to fear for their childs lives.

Uh, this is the big misconception in teh world today. Fear mongering. This stuff has always happened. The difference is you never heard about it because it had to be HUGE to make front page national news. Now everything is at your fingertips as soon as it happens or even while it is happening. It makes it seem like it is constant, when really it hasn't changed much in decades.

I would actually argue that the biggest change/issue these days is that with social media anonymity and the toxicity that has come with it, has leaked out into every day life as well and 'normal' people think they can do whatever they want to whoever they want without repercussions. Additionally they think they get fame if they stream it on the internet. It is a completely separate issue to 'think of the children' mindset.

 

[bradly1101]

It's not the cost; it's the liability. If a child doesn't buckle up and is injured, is the bus driver liable? How does a bus driver insure that all the children are buckled up? How much time will this take?

Sensors? beeping? an electronic voice "3A is unbuckled", a light maybe. Lives of kids are worth it.

 

[IronWing]

So are kids being more pampered these days? Back in my day most kids walked or rode their bikes to school. Although a few did ride the public buses.

For some reason I see less kids riding their bikes if they even have one.

I think it's virtue signaling by the parents.

 

[IronWing]

Sensors? beeping? an electronic voice "3A is unbuckled", a light maybe. Lives of kids are worth it.

Then the drive has to stop the bus and go back and check the kid's belt. Repeat thirty times per trip. The bus would never get to school.

 

[bradly1101]

Then the drive has to stop the bus and go back and check the kid's belt. Repeat thirty times per trip. The bus would never get to school.

Doomsaying is easy compared to compassionate effort.

 

[lxskllr]

Doomsaying is easy compared to compassionate effort.

Odds of dying in a bus accident are 1:179k. Odds of dying on steps are 1:2.7k. Would you like me to recommend a harness/lanyard for you? If I go through the effort, I'll need you to promise me you won't ever go within 6' of steps without being clipped. Safety at any cost. You can never be too careful, or have too many regulations.

 

[Exterous]

Speaking of multiple stops - a bit closer to home my subdivision has two stops which means no kid has to walk more than 1/4 of a mile to the bus stop. If I leave late I'll see a lineup of cars at the bus stop with kids inside waiting for the bus to show up

What is "decently busy" . I live on a busy state road (45 mph speed limit but everyone goes over that). The bus picks up my kids on the road and yes, causes some backups. I try to be courteous and make sure my kids are out there before the bus comes but we hang out well away from the road until the bus stops. I've had my mailbox and garbage can clipped a couple times or come out to tire tracks at the edge of the grass. The shoulder of the road is maybe a couple feet so I can't figure out how people are that bad at driving.

However, if door to door bus service is happening in typical housing developments, instead of the kids gathering at a few spots, then I agree, that is crazy.

I'm not entirely sure if this helps to quantify 'decently busy' or not: Its a 2 lane road with wide shoulders (mail truck fits completely on the shoulder to be able to deliver mail and doesn't bother merging back onto the road between mailboxes), 55mph and few stop lights. Its also the only way to get to a highway from a large township so any repeated stopping quickly builds up a long line of cars. I'll see 25+ cars backed up because someone is going 40pmh on my way home and, while its a straight road, you'll rarely be able to pass due to frequent oncoming traffic.

Odds of dying in a bus accident are 1:179k. Odds of dying on steps are 1:2.7k. Would you like me to recommend a harness/lanyard for you? If I go through the effort, I'll need you to promise me you won't ever go within 6' of steps without being clipped. Safety at any cost. You can never be too careful, or have too many regulations.

Don't forget about open bodies of water like pools or bathtubs. Those are particularly deadly towards the young and elderly so we should probably get ride of those too.