A couple of observations: The local elementary school has a large number of walkers and a large number of children who are driven in. Those who walk in are fre

A couple of observations: The local elementary school has a large number of walkers and a large number of children who are driven in. Those who walk in are frequently accompanied by their parents, the parents appear to enjoy the time with their children, and the parents typically hang around to socialize with other parents. Parents who drive their children in usually drop their children off in dangerous spots and spend an awful lot of time socializing with police officers. A number of those parents also try to drive through crossing guards (sometimes literally) who are there to keep the children safe, including the children who were dropped off on the wrong side of the street. Driving may be convenient, but there are many times when convenience is taken too far and the walkers seem to be happier. Schools in my city tend to be cancelled when the weather is too dangerous for driving yet safe for walking (e.g. large snowfalls) and are virtually never cancelled when it is too dangerous for walking yet fine for driving (e.g. high wind chill). In a way, it makes sense. Walkers can still be driven in when it is unsafe to walk, while most of the children who are driven in cannot walk to school. It is one of the many costs of designing car centric cities instead of walkable ones.