How does your child get to school?

I am a school bus driver and I see parents like this every day. It seems to me the parents who drop off their kids are concerned with dropping off their kids and don't pay attention to anything else. I have had parents complain because they are asked to move from non loading zones when they are blocking buses. If parents were a little more considerate this could be avoided

1. My 7 year old rides his bike to school 2. It's only a few streets away so getting in the car is unnecessary. I also feel it gives him some responsibility. It also gives him exercise and fresh air. 3. Good for them. i like seeing children walking/cycling to school, getting some exercise especially as the country is getting fatter. 4. Well i live in London UK so most people wouldn't trust there kids to walk alone ie. on an estate. I live in a nice area though where crime is low. Unlike in the built up areas where crime is high and people fear for their children's safety because of stabbings and shootings. 5. Driving i feel is always unnecessary because it makes the roads busier for the children who are actually walking to school. I think walking is excellent especially if a few adults walk a big group of children to their school everyday. A school bus is also safe but i wouldn't trust it if it was a public bus and not strictly a school bus. ETA: I disagree with the person above that driving is the safest way to school. For the people in the car then yes, but for the other children actually walking then no it isn't. It adds to the traffic. It's unbelievable round here that people actually get in their car to drive their child down the street.?!

Not my kids but my sister (12) and myself (15). 1. I walk because I only about 200m from the high school. My sister gets driven to school most days and occasionally walks 2. It is easy and safe 3. Fine, heaps of people do it. 4. Everyone knows everyone, it's safe. 5. Yeah both of these methods are safe.

I have 5 boys; two are in high school and three are in primary school. 1.) Most of the time we drive my kids to school, but in worst case scenerios; my oldest boys in high school sometimes have to catch the school bus. 2.) It is the safest and easiest. 3.) Nothing wrong with kids that walk to school, but if it is a long distance, then I worry. Road safety and stranger danger. 4.) Age and environment, if it is a quiet, safe, local, close communtity where everyone knows each other- I think it is safe, but if it is busy area then no. But either way, I would not let my kids walk to school, not even my 16yr old boy. 5.) Driving is safe. NOTE: I have had a personal experience with my 16yr old son. My oldest. It was when he was nine, he got hit by a car, which happened to be drunk teenagers speeding. They actually got out do help my son, but I was still very cross with them. Justin was dozing in and out of consciousness, broke his leg and was put into a inducded coma. When he was finally out of hospital he spent about 2-3 weeks at home recovering. Terrible time for my family. That still haunts my son and family.

My children attend a Christian school that doesn't offer bus service so we drive them to and from school. We are not allowed to be on the phone, and we have to walk up, verify with the teacher that we are taking each child up until they are in 7th grade and walk them to our cars. When we lived in Kansas the local Christian school paid the city to use the bus service and they rode the bus. I had one bad experience, when my oldest was in Prekindergarten I walked to his school. We lived just a couple blocks away. When I got to his classroom, his teacher had lost him. He had wandered up the school corridor and had gotten on a bus unnoticed. It was very frightening and I pulled him from that school. In todays day and age I would be very fearful of kids walking, this is only because you hear so many terrifying tales. Of course if you live close, have to work or just don't have any other option, parents do what they can.

im not a parent but i'm a high school student... 1. i walk 2. i only live 2 blocks from my school 3. they shouldnt have to worry about cars hitting them 4. younger kids usually watch for cars better than older kids and high schoolers who can drive, drive really recklessly and some kids drive to school/ get a ride even if they could walk because they r to lazy to get up early enough 5. probably getting driven to school by a parent is safest.

im 17, so i dont have kids, but this is how i got to school last year 1) my mom dropped me off since it was on her way to work in the morning, and i usually walked home, occasionally id take the bus but that wasnt often because i usually hung out with my friends for a little while after school. 2) both of my parents work and are out of the house when i get out of school, i live only two miles away from the school so its a pretty easy walk. 3) nothing, its just another way of getting to school, theres nothing wrong with it, in fact its good because theyre getting exercise. ive been walking to school since i was 7, with friends, and by myself since i was 9. its a pretty busy town so there are always people around to watch out for each other and no one has ever come close to being kidnapped, and i knew about stranger safety, to never go near a car that is pulling up near me and to never go down a empty street, only take streets that go through bright crowded areas and to never say more then "hello" to a a stranger. no one has ever been hit by a car either, even though over 50% of kids walk, because we know how to cross a street safely. we dont have any teachers or aids waiting around outside to watch out for us, the only way to keep kids from getting hit is to teach them to look both ways and be careful when crossing the street (and railroad tracks), if you see a car, no matter how far away it is, dont go, its something we learned in kindergarden. theres a state law in NY about driving while on a cell phone and we have cops hanging out outside the schools for security, so parents on phones isnt a problem. also, barely any parents drive their kids, so there isnt a lot of traffic around the school dropoff area and parking lot. many parents work and cant drive their kids too and from school, and buses arent provided within two miles of the school, so how else are the kids supposed to get home, it doesnt make them bad parents. 4) in kindergarden through 2nd grade, my school was six miles from home, so it wasnt practical for me to walk so i took a bus, but if it was closer i probably would have. as long as kids understand how to safely cross a street and about stranger safety, then its okay, and 5 is old enough to walk home in a group if their house is just a couple blocks down. if the kid was 5 and lived on the other side of town and had to cross a 8 lane highway, then walking would not be a good option. its a decision decided by a combination of the age of the age and the path they would have to walk. 5) there is no consistently safe method of transportation, you can get hurt doing anything, but if you really think about it, statistically, walking is actually one of the safest. what most people dont realize is if you take away the cases of custodial kidnappings, kids who wander away, and kids who run away, only 150 kids under the age of 18 are actually kidnapped by a stranger every year. that is a big number and kidnapping shouldnt be taken lightly, but its not so big compared to the 6000 kids under the age of 18 who die in car accidents every year, thats one kid every three days compared to sixteen kids every day. 104 children on average are hit and killed by cars each year, thats once every three days, which combined with the number of kidnappings, is still far less then the number of kids killed in car accidents. so my bottom line is, walking in a group is safest if the child understands safety rules and lives nearby, plus is better for the environment and the child is getting exercise, and bussing is better if the school is more then a few blocks from the childs home.