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View Full Version : Do any kids ride school buses anymore?



Brian Elfert
09-30-2013, 9:06 PM
Do any kids in suburban school districts even ride school buses anymore? At every elementary school in my area there are huge lines of cars with parents picking up or dropping off kids. At some schools they have officers directing traffic because there are so many cars. I went to a parochial schools in the 80s. We had maybe 30 kids who didn't take the bus. Now days that school has probably 100 cars at dismissal time waiting to pick up kids.

Are my tax dollars just being wasted sending empty school buses around every day? I remember in high school the school bus had to drive by every stop even though at a lot of stops nobody ever took the bus because they drove to school.

James Duryea
09-30-2013, 9:25 PM
Brian,
I was wondering the same thing. I saw it last year in California (Huge lines and traffic jams) and now here in Texas. (You just don't go near a school around 3pm). I know there were a lot of more stay at home moms when I went to school in the 70 and 80's so you would think that there would have been more pick ups back then. Now with both parents working (maybe) they are having time to pick them up? Strange.

Todd Burch
09-30-2013, 9:25 PM
Fewer and fewer kids are riding.

It was my goal, that my son ride the bus at least ONCE during high school. ONCE IN 4 YEARS... Sigh..... Didn't happen.

Curt Fuller
09-30-2013, 9:33 PM
Around here it's just the opposite of wasting tax dollars. Here the school budgets are being cut and busing is one of the things that goes first. I just read a story in the paper that said the local school district will no longer bus kids that are less than 1.5 miles from school. Of course I walked twice that far when I was in school, uphill both ways, in a snow storm. But seriously, I would bet what you're seeing is the result of cuts in the busing budget and parents that don't feel comfortable letting their kids walk that far. I find it interesting though. I walked a few blocks to school when I was a kid and seem to remember really enjoying it. We picked up with our friends along the way and had a pretty good time.

Brian Elfert
09-30-2013, 10:02 PM
When I was going to parochial school the principal decided to reverse the bus routes in the afternoon so the first pickup in the morning was the last dropped off in the afternoon. We were the last picked up in the morning so we had to ride the bus for 45 minutes at night. We would walk the 15 minutes home a lot of times, but my parents didn't like it due to a couple of dangerous intersections. They added 4 way stop signs to those intersections long after I was out of school.

I bet a lot of the stay at home moms in the old days didn't have a car to pick up the kids. My mother never had a job outside the home so was always home, but we didn't have two cars until I was in high school. The only time I ever got a ride to/from school was if I had to go to the doctor or dentist.

Ken Fitzgerald
09-30-2013, 10:12 PM
We live in an area that 700' in elevation higher than the down town area where the high school and one junior high is located.

Children that live within a certain distance of a school cannot ride the bus. Students within the city limits beyond that distance can ride the bus.

As Curt expressed, we have seen a cut in the state education budget and as result, busing seems to be one of the first things pared back.

curtis rosche
09-30-2013, 10:17 PM
around here, the local school my mother teaches at, there is lots of kids who drive or are dropped off. But there are few enough busses that if everyone rode the bus the same day school would have to start late cause the busses would need multiple trips

Greg Peterson
09-30-2013, 10:18 PM
I walked to school, rain or shine. 1/2 mile during grade school, 3/4 mile for high school. We did live in some areas where I had to ride a school bus. I preferred walking if it was a reasonable option.

The thought of getting a ride from one of the parents never even crossed my mind. Well, I'm sure on some cold, rainy mornings it crossed my mind once or twice. But my job was to get to school and home again, on my own.

Biff Johnson
10-01-2013, 12:11 AM
My kids do! In fact, my bus is a sub driver for our little rural school. I always walked to school when I was a kid and longed to ride the bus. Now that I see what my kids go through on the bus I am awfully glad I didn't have to!

Shawn Pixley
10-01-2013, 1:38 AM
My son did ride the school bus... Until he started in marching band. Then we had to drive him to school and hour early and pick him up an hour later than the other students. Add in the Thursday night practices, the Friday football games and the Saturday competitions and we felt like chaufeurs...

Jim Matthews
10-01-2013, 6:40 AM
Around here it's just the opposite of wasting tax dollars. Here the school budgets are being cut and busing is one of the things that goes first.

+1 on the route cuts leading to this.
There is also an overblown fear of abuses on buses as related by the occasional Internet story.

Nobody is talking about the spike in car accidents involving kids during these congested hours.

When I went to Jr. High and High school, the bus took nearly 50 minutes longer to get to school than I could on foot.
More sleep or an easy walk - it was not a difficult choice for a teenager.

There's no way I would let my kids ride a bicycle through Fall River, MA to attend school unless properly attired (http://executivesummary.wordpress.com/2007/02/).
(Moustache optional)

Frank Trinkle
10-01-2013, 9:11 AM
My soon to be six year old is in Kindergarten and rides the bus. We weren't sure if he would "behave" as he is ADHD, but there have been no problems and he has made good friends on the bus.
Of course, he is in Germany going to a Military Base Elementary School (DODDS) and the bus runs through all the German Villages to pick up the American kids to take to the school on base. We thought our AuPair might have to take him and pick him up, but the bus has been a really good socializing opportunity for him that works. We're happy.

Kevin Bourque
10-01-2013, 9:50 AM
What really bugs me is the kids who actually take the bus.......getting picked up/dropped off about every 100 feet along the road I'm traveling on. It's practically door to door limo service.

Mac McQuinn
10-01-2013, 10:38 AM
I'll have to agree, if you get behind a school bus in my rural area, it will be a long drive to where you're going. I went to school in the same area (45) years ago and all of us would walk to one meeting spot, and be picked up there by bus. At the most it was a mile walk. Once home and changed out of our school cloths, we usually were involved in chores and then a pick up basketball, football or baseball game before dinner. It was pretty rare to be bored and overweight.
Mac



What really bugs me is the kids who actually take the bus.......getting picked up/dropped off about every 100 feet along the road I'm traveling on. It's practically door to door limo service.

Prashun Patel
10-01-2013, 10:54 AM
Around my area, they all ride, but nobody WALKS to the bus stop any more.

Frederick Skelly
10-01-2013, 10:59 AM
Busses look pretty full here. Lots of car riders too though.

Chris Kennedy
10-01-2013, 11:48 AM
Lots of kids around here ride the bus. For a while, mine was one of them, but it became silly. The buses have really long routes and so my kid had to leave the house at 7:20 to catch the bus and school starts at 8:20. Time it takes to drive from my house to the school -- 5 minutes. With our work schedules, my wife and I found ourselves driving past the school at the same time he would either be arriving in the morning or leaving in the afternoon. It became easier and more convenient for everybody if we just dropped him and picked him up.

Chris

Jim Rimmer
10-01-2013, 1:33 PM
I see lots of kids at the bus stops in my area so I assume the buses are relatively full. My concern is the different schedules from elementary to middle school to high school. I hear buses coming through the neighborhood at 6:30 AM and then again at 7:00 and when I leave the house at 7:30 and my wife says there are some after that. I guess they try to segregate the riders by age to stop bullying.

Steve Peterson
10-01-2013, 2:22 PM
They have buses for my kids school, but it is optional and you have to pay for them. The roads are narrow and without sidewalks so very few kids can walk.

The elementary school is about 1 mile away. My wife drives the kids to/from school. It is not too bad if you are early and slightly frustrating if you are running late.

The middle school (grades 4-8) is about 5 miles away. 90% of the cars are coming from the same direction down a 2 lane road. Dropping kids off at school is extremely frustrating. Luckily there is a transfer bus from the elementary school to the middle school. It costs something like $85 per year and is well worth it. Our 4th grader takes the bus.

Steve

Brian Elfert
10-01-2013, 2:37 PM
Around here there are four rounds of buses. First round takes kids to high school. Second round is middle school. Third round is elementary school. The final round is non-public schools. The non-public schools start at 9:15 am and go until 4 pm.

It would take a lot more buses to get everyone to school at the same time.

Rick Potter
10-01-2013, 5:41 PM
In my city, they still have buses. Next door, they don't. They both have lots of kids being dropped off, including the high schools.

One thing that has REALLY changed since my kids went to school in the 70's and 80's is bicycle riding. Very few kids ride a bike to school. As a matter of fact, you don't see that many kids riding at all, more skateboards than bikes now. Adults riding bikes far outnumber the kids riding now, at least around here.

My son has his three kids walk or ride to three different schools. Pretty unusual around here now.

Way to many 'Helicopter Parents'.


Back in my day I would come home from school with frostbite from walking to school in the snow, 10 miles, uphill both ways :D.

Rick Potter

Fred Perreault
10-02-2013, 6:10 AM
Over the past few years here on the Cape many of the schools have gone to a number of fee based features. The school bus, some sports, and some other extracurricular activities are fee based in some way. Of course, there has always been a number of parents who drove their youngsters, but the lines have continually gotten longer. My 2 grandsons took the bus until they were H.S. juniors or seniors, when they got a car "for work" and drove to high school if they had gas money. Their regional high school is in a remote area.

Pat Barry
10-02-2013, 1:38 PM
Sure there are bus rides, its just that if you live within a mile or so they won't pick the kids up and expect them to walk. As a parent we tried to fight this and lost, consequently, with all the potential bullies, nutballs, deviants, and predators out there, my wife would never allow them to walk to school and insisted on driving them.