Why Don't Kids Walk To School Anymore?

Science Daily ^ | 3-28-2008 | University of Michigan.

[PeterFinn]

You forgot to add the “Walk Zone with Child Molester” graphic. Check your local Megan’s Law database and see how many sex offender live on your kid’s walk to school and there will be a good reason to drive your kid to school every day.

[cripplecreek]

I’m glad I grew up in a small town where we walked to school, sidewalk or not.

[GOP_Raider]

Where’s the “Sidewalk Going Uphill In Both Directions?”

[Coldwater Creek]

Children in my world are bussed across town to ensure racial balance.

[Alberta's Child]

Kids stopped walking to school when municipalities started building schools with no consideration for pedestrian access.

Most of the schools in my town are adjacent to residential streets and major arterials that don't even have continuous sidewalks.

[olivia3boys]

I drive my kids across town to a Christian school with decent test scores. If my local gov’t school was any good, and if I liked gov’t schools, they would go there (just down the street), and they would ride their bikes.

Lots of over-cautious parents these days=lots of driving kids to school.

[Jaidyn]

If I still had children at home, I would walk or drive them to school everyday, and the school is just down the street. I don’t trust the neighborhood, or the goons who like little kids.

[mtbopfuyn]

"In Texas, where we lived when I conducted this study, our sons did not walk to school because we lived too far away," said Kweon, who is also affiliated with the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment. In general, she found, children who walk to school usually live less than three-quarters of a mile away.

1) Yep, 20 miles one way.

2) Buses pick up kids who live a mile from school.

3) The study didn't include the fact that sickos live on the walk to school.

[PeteB570]

Don’t forget the housewife running late driving a big SUV speeding through the school zone doing 55 in a 35.

[Walkingfeather]

and the burning hot snow..?

[SunTzuWu]

I think the answer is over protective parents. Here in South East North Carolina, schools are unbelievably crowded with parents dropping off and picking up kids from school. More are carried to school than ride the bus. I'm not exaggerating. When you come near a school zone both the oncoming lane and the lane you're in are backed up for several hundred yards with cars waiting their turn to drop off their precious cargo.

Ya! I know. I'll never understand till I have kids of my own. Well I do remember growing up. We walked to school, we played unsupervised, we played contact sports during recess. Kids today are wrapped in bubble wrap, We are raising a generation of wimps and parents are to blame.

[Coldwater Creek]

Smart momma!

[SeaHawkFan]

That is no longer constitutional. US Supreme Court ruled so in the Seattle School district case last year.

[Jacquerie]

I didn't know that idiotic and counterproductive court ordered busing still exists. In what city do you live?

[Twink]

My two youngest are walkers (as were the two teens when they attended the same school).

They all walked when the two oldest were there or the other kids who were older were there.

Now it’s just my two little ones and another little girl. They walk home only when they have to but that’s because they’re clueless, unlike their older sibs who had a brain and awareness of their surroundings.Next year, they’ll have to walk home more often and cell phones are a great way to keep in touch.

It’s not good to keep kids in a bubble, imo.

[Coldwater Creek]

My town didn't get the memo. But, then most of the white children and black parents that sacrifice for their children's education, attend private schools, or are homeschooled.

[Clintonfatigued]

The lack of sidewalks is the main culprit. The lack of sidewalks is also contributing to childhood obesity being on the rise. The lack of sidewalks is also another reason to homeschool, as homeschooling parents will often take their children to the park and on visits to museums and libraries.

[org.whodat]

You forgot to add the “Walk Zone with Child Molester” graphic. Check your local Megan’s Law database and see how many sex offender live on your kid’s walk to school and there will be a good reason to drive your kid to school every day.

Not to mention the illegals that slipped into your neighbor hood last night.

[Coldwater Creek]

Memphis.