4 ms·

When I was a kid like 15 years ago we'd walk to school if it was close. I took the bus until middle school which was like 1 mile away. I hope car usage goes do

When I was a kid like 15 years ago we'd walk to school if it was close. I took the bus until middle school which was like 1 mile away. I hope car usage goes down, especially a single person driving a big SUV. Walk, or bike, to where you need to go. Less cars, more safe.

mike_d 5y ago
I'm glad your parents were in an economic situation where you could live walking distance from school in a neighborhood safe enough to do so. Only 9% of students in the US live within a reasonable walking distance.
- lucastheisen 5y ago
  what is a reasonable walking distance? 9% seems like a surprisingly small number.
  - me_me_mu_mu 5y ago
    Just looked at CDC website it says fewer than 20%. Suburbs have been the only place where I’ve seen lots of yellow busses because everything is so spread out. Idk where that dude got his numbers, go to any city in the USA and you'll see kids taking public transit to school aka walking. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2016/15_0573.htm#:~:text=Estimates%20vary%2C%20but%20studies%20generally,support%20(12%E2%80%9314) https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2016/15_0573.htm#:~:text=Esti....
    - mike_d 5y ago
      > go to any city in the USA and you'll see kids taking public transit to school aka walking The majority of children do not live in cities. Most people move to suburban/urban areas when they have kids.
    - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
      Not every school system provides transportation, and when they do, some states (maybe all?) require that transportation be provided by a yellow school bus and not a city bus. (My father ran into this in Indiana). I'm gonna guess that in at least some of these areas, they walk/take busses because the school system doesn't provide transportation.
  - judge2020 5y ago
    From a 2014 study in Norfolk, UK[0] (note: UK should have relatively similar child obesity rates as the US at this time, given they only surpassed the US in 2018[1]): > This study shows that young people living closer to school are more likely to walk to school than those living further away (Panter et al., 2008, Pont et al., 2009). The novel contribution of this work is the identification of the threshold distances that children walk to school, and that this increases as young people age; the criterion distances were 1421 m (0.8 miles) at 10 years, 1627 m (~1 mile) at 11 years and 3046 m (~1.9 miles) at 14 years. However, note that US suburbs are often vastly more spread out while servicing the same size population: for example, Worcester, England at 100k population is only 12 square miles[2] and Chico California with 100k population is 34 square miles[3]. 0: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829214001592#:~:text=14%20years%20old.-,4.%20Discussion,-This%20study%20shows https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135382921... 1: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5750341/Bigger-11-year-olds-England-obese-United-States.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5750341/Bigger-11-y... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester,_England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester,_England 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico,_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico,_California
- me_me_mu_mu 5y ago
  My parents were poor immigrants (mom couldn’t work legally due to immigration status), But yeah I’m glad I had other friends from my apartment complex that I could walk to school with. You ever been to inner city? That’s probably where that 9% is from, unless you’ve got more stats you can pull up because it seems your only perspective is numbers you read on theatlantic or something along with your latte. With less cars on the road as time goes on, I hope walking and public transit becomes a viable option. You ever seen kids going on the metro busses or light rail? I’ve only ever seen this in cities, and never in suburbs where I live now, except the kids who live across the street from the school.
moltke 5y ago
I think car usage is likely to go up unless the crime in cities is dealt with. For that to happen we have to stop calling constructive peace keeping work "racist" though and that seems unlikely.

mike_d 5y ago

I'm glad your parents were in an economic situation where you could live walking distance from school in a neighborhood safe enough to do so. Only 9% of students in the US live within a reasonable walking distance.

lucastheisen 5y ago
what is a reasonable walking distance? 9% seems like a surprisingly small number.
- me_me_mu_mu 5y ago
  Just looked at CDC website it says fewer than 20%. Suburbs have been the only place where I’ve seen lots of yellow busses because everything is so spread out. Idk where that dude got his numbers, go to any city in the USA and you'll see kids taking public transit to school aka walking. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2016/15_0573.htm#:~:text=Estimates%20vary%2C%20but%20studies%20generally,support%20(12%E2%80%9314) https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2016/15_0573.htm#:~:text=Esti....
  - mike_d 5y ago
    > go to any city in the USA and you'll see kids taking public transit to school aka walking The majority of children do not live in cities. Most people move to suburban/urban areas when they have kids.
  - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
    Not every school system provides transportation, and when they do, some states (maybe all?) require that transportation be provided by a yellow school bus and not a city bus. (My father ran into this in Indiana). I'm gonna guess that in at least some of these areas, they walk/take busses because the school system doesn't provide transportation.
- judge2020 5y ago
  From a 2014 study in Norfolk, UK[0] (note: UK should have relatively similar child obesity rates as the US at this time, given they only surpassed the US in 2018[1]): > This study shows that young people living closer to school are more likely to walk to school than those living further away (Panter et al., 2008, Pont et al., 2009). The novel contribution of this work is the identification of the threshold distances that children walk to school, and that this increases as young people age; the criterion distances were 1421 m (0.8 miles) at 10 years, 1627 m (~1 mile) at 11 years and 3046 m (~1.9 miles) at 14 years. However, note that US suburbs are often vastly more spread out while servicing the same size population: for example, Worcester, England at 100k population is only 12 square miles[2] and Chico California with 100k population is 34 square miles[3]. 0: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829214001592#:~:text=14%20years%20old.-,4.%20Discussion,-This%20study%20shows https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135382921... 1: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5750341/Bigger-11-year-olds-England-obese-United-States.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5750341/Bigger-11-y... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester,_England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester,_England 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico,_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico,_California
me_me_mu_mu 5y ago
My parents were poor immigrants (mom couldn’t work legally due to immigration status), But yeah I’m glad I had other friends from my apartment complex that I could walk to school with. You ever been to inner city? That’s probably where that 9% is from, unless you’ve got more stats you can pull up because it seems your only perspective is numbers you read on theatlantic or something along with your latte. With less cars on the road as time goes on, I hope walking and public transit becomes a viable option. You ever seen kids going on the metro busses or light rail? I’ve only ever seen this in cities, and never in suburbs where I live now, except the kids who live across the street from the school.

moltke 5y ago

I think car usage is likely to go up unless the crime in cities is dealt with. For that to happen we have to stop calling constructive peace keeping work "racist" though and that seems unlikely.