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My mom walked me to school until I was in 4th grade. She was a single mom and needed to work, so she decided to let me walk to and from school from then on. I m

My mom walked me to school until I was in 4th grade. She was a single mom and needed to work, so she decided to let me walk to and from school from then on. I made friends on that walk. 30+ years later, I am still friends with many of them even though we live hours away from each other. I'm not a parent, so I don't know what I don't know; but, I've observed so many kids being shuffled between school, events, "play dates" where it is harder to build deep relationships outside of the parent's sight. Everything is being curated to "ensure" the kids are safe or on the "right" path. I understand that we live in a different world, but I really do feel that its to the detriment of the kids.

Aurornis 2y ago
There's an entire section and even a chart in the article that explains why this is different now In 1969 only about 30% of kids lived too far away from school for walking to be a realistic option. In 2009 (and today) that numbers is around 80%. Walking to and from school is great if you can do it. Most people cannot do it.
- brodouevencode 2y ago
  Seriously - I'd love to have my kids walk but we are 22 miles away (in a rural area).
  - me_smith 2y ago
    I grew up in a suburban area so I am out of touch with the rural experience. Because the article is comparing the past with the present, I am curious what parents were doing in the 90s in your area? And, what are parents doing nowadays? I'm assuming, either car or bus. And I can't imagine that would have changed since the 90s unless there used to be a school much closer.
  - bryanlarsen 2y ago
    When I grew up in a rural area I walked 1/3 mile to meet the school bus. Is that not still the typical experience?
- me_smith 2y ago
  Yea. I get it. Schools are getting farther away. I was lucky to be 2-3 miles away which I think is a reasonable distance. But it really depends on what people are comfortable with which is what this whole article comes down to. I wonder if this also takes into account families choosing to send their kids to schools farther away. In particular, sending them to private or charter schools that are farther away.
- aqme28 2y ago
  why are schools farther away now? That's interesting.
  - crooked-v 2y ago
    It's in part because every major US city has spent decades underbuilding housing (usually through zoning and permitting that makes middle-density housing implicitly or explicitly illegal), pushing everyone out into the burbs just to find homes they can afford.
    - naijaboiler 2y ago
      I think we have cause and effect mixed up. The greater of highways post WW2 and the riots of the 60s, and increased affordability of vehicles drove suburbanization. With less people putting housing pressure in cities, of course you get unbuilding of houses in the cities
  - me_smith 2y ago
    It might be due to the school consolidations and schools being moved to cheaper areas. The article does have a chart that shows distance from their school. I'm curious if there are closer schools that parents chose not to let their child attend. I have known a couple people that drive miles away to drop their kid off to private schools when they have a public school a mile away.
  - twiddling 2y ago
    zoning and economies of scale in building out larger schools overall which from a bigger area. throw in pedestrian hostile suburban road design...voila
  - bsder 2y ago
    Nobody wants to pay for teachers. Consequently, they make bigger schools with larger classrooms. Where I grew up, you had multiple smaller elementary and middle schools eventually feeding into a larger high school.
  - peterbecich 2y ago
- Suppafly 2y ago
  >Walking to and from school is great if you can do it. This. I would have let my kids walk to school, but one of the intersections would have been totally unsafe.
Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
> I understand that we live in a different world Do we, though? Kidnappings have been dropping steadily for decades, though maybe it's because kids are indoors more often now. Though FWIW, most kidnappings are from an insane relative, not the random guy promising candy in his van. I was allowed to play outside unsupervised when I was only 9 years old in 1991, though maybe being on the Keflavik, Iceland US Navy base played a role in that.
- micromacrofoot 2y ago
  It doesn't, in the early 90s I was even younger in the US and I had to walk to school about a mile along a busy street. There was no other way for me to get there, no bus or anyone around to drive me.
- Aurornis 2y ago
  > Do we, though? Yes we do, and it's covered in the article. It's not kidnappers. It's distance to school. 80% of kids live too far to walk. It's not that their parents are afraid of kidnappers, it's that they literally cannot feasibly walk to and from school every day.
  - alistairSH 2y ago
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10917142/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10917142/ And yet, even for students who live within 0.25 mile of school, a minority walk.
    - scruple 2y ago
      Because road crossing are genuinely terrifying today. The automobiles are too big and the drivers are too distracted. I have a hard time walking my kids across the street for school sometimes and that's with a crossing guard. People are fucking nuts and are driving around in these oversized vehicles with their phones in their faces. You can very casually, very trivially observe this any time you want by simply walking down a semi-busy street and looking at the drivers as they go by.
micromacrofoot 2y ago
You also can't really choose to opt out without leaving the country because lots of places make it illegal for your under <13 kid to go anywhere on their own.
RGamma 2y ago
Walking from primary school was the shit. Playing with the electric fence, cycling on the frozen stream, getting scalded for being late...

Aurornis 2y ago

There's an entire section and even a chart in the article that explains why this is different now In 1969 only about 30% of kids lived too far away from school for walking to be a realistic option. In 2009 (and today) that numbers is around 80%. Walking to and from school is great if you can do it. Most people cannot do it.

brodouevencode 2y ago
Seriously - I'd love to have my kids walk but we are 22 miles away (in a rural area).
- me_smith 2y ago
  I grew up in a suburban area so I am out of touch with the rural experience. Because the article is comparing the past with the present, I am curious what parents were doing in the 90s in your area? And, what are parents doing nowadays? I'm assuming, either car or bus. And I can't imagine that would have changed since the 90s unless there used to be a school much closer.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  When I grew up in a rural area I walked 1/3 mile to meet the school bus. Is that not still the typical experience?
me_smith 2y ago
Yea. I get it. Schools are getting farther away. I was lucky to be 2-3 miles away which I think is a reasonable distance. But it really depends on what people are comfortable with which is what this whole article comes down to. I wonder if this also takes into account families choosing to send their kids to schools farther away. In particular, sending them to private or charter schools that are farther away.
aqme28 2y ago
why are schools farther away now? That's interesting.
- crooked-v 2y ago
  It's in part because every major US city has spent decades underbuilding housing (usually through zoning and permitting that makes middle-density housing implicitly or explicitly illegal), pushing everyone out into the burbs just to find homes they can afford.
  - naijaboiler 2y ago
    I think we have cause and effect mixed up. The greater of highways post WW2 and the riots of the 60s, and increased affordability of vehicles drove suburbanization. With less people putting housing pressure in cities, of course you get unbuilding of houses in the cities
- me_smith 2y ago
  It might be due to the school consolidations and schools being moved to cheaper areas. The article does have a chart that shows distance from their school. I'm curious if there are closer schools that parents chose not to let their child attend. I have known a couple people that drive miles away to drop their kid off to private schools when they have a public school a mile away.
- twiddling 2y ago
  zoning and economies of scale in building out larger schools overall which from a bigger area. throw in pedestrian hostile suburban road design...voila
- bsder 2y ago
  Nobody wants to pay for teachers. Consequently, they make bigger schools with larger classrooms. Where I grew up, you had multiple smaller elementary and middle schools eventually feeding into a larger high school.
- peterbecich 2y ago
Suppafly 2y ago
>Walking to and from school is great if you can do it. This. I would have let my kids walk to school, but one of the intersections would have been totally unsafe.

Sohcahtoa82 2y ago

> I understand that we live in a different world Do we, though? Kidnappings have been dropping steadily for decades, though maybe it's because kids are indoors more often now. Though FWIW, most kidnappings are from an insane relative, not the random guy promising candy in his van. I was allowed to play outside unsupervised when I was only 9 years old in 1991, though maybe being on the Keflavik, Iceland US Navy base played a role in that.

micromacrofoot 2y ago
It doesn't, in the early 90s I was even younger in the US and I had to walk to school about a mile along a busy street. There was no other way for me to get there, no bus or anyone around to drive me.
Aurornis 2y ago
> Do we, though? Yes we do, and it's covered in the article. It's not kidnappers. It's distance to school. 80% of kids live too far to walk. It's not that their parents are afraid of kidnappers, it's that they literally cannot feasibly walk to and from school every day.
- alistairSH 2y ago
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10917142/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10917142/ And yet, even for students who live within 0.25 mile of school, a minority walk.
  - scruple 2y ago
    Because road crossing are genuinely terrifying today. The automobiles are too big and the drivers are too distracted. I have a hard time walking my kids across the street for school sometimes and that's with a crossing guard. People are fucking nuts and are driving around in these oversized vehicles with their phones in their faces. You can very casually, very trivially observe this any time you want by simply walking down a semi-busy street and looking at the drivers as they go by.

micromacrofoot 2y ago

You also can't really choose to opt out without leaving the country because lots of places make it illegal for your under <13 kid to go anywhere on their own.

RGamma 2y ago

Walking from primary school was the shit. Playing with the electric fence, cycling on the frozen stream, getting scalded for being late...