Why did Kids Stop Walking to School?

[@Akto]

Props to the girl that had to go to school in thousands of different ways to make this video. She singlehandedly carried the show.

[@pigletshut]

She could be Uytae's daughter for all we know. Props still! (Well, she still mostly walked or was driven.)

[@thelukesternater]

Spot the lil girl wif the backpack, just a fun lil game for this vid….

[@jeretso]

girl is too close to the train @10:55

[@8lec_R]

Jokes on you, I listened to the entire video and didn't watch it The real hero is the poor mic going through all that harsh environment and battling the harsh weather

[@ballducked7288]

when school is 8 miles away and on the highway ain't no way i'm walking

[@angelabarnard6832]

Don't forget parental peer pressure. When we started allowing our daughter to bike to school in the 4th grade, SO MANY parents questioned why we were doing it. I was quizzed all the time about safety, kidnapping, etc. It's not like we just sent her off. Over the course of the summer, she and my husband practiced the route weekly until she was comfortable with it. She did great and finished biking to elementary school and then changed directions and biked to middle school. I gained two hours of my day back (a one mile round trip for drop-off and pick-up took about an hour in South Florida traffic!!!) and she gained immeasurable confidence. We both gained some much needed freedom!!!!

[@MsRotorwings]

Great job!

[@joncalon7508]

Good for you to stand up to the peer pressure!

[@Collinthedrummer]

Great for you Angela! Hope y'all are doing well

[@felixtheswiss]

Here in Switzerland peer pressure goes the other way. "What she still drives her 2.grade kid to school?"

[@ThePussukka]

Great job, but still 4th grade is crazy to me, we did that the summer before 1st grade, on the first day my dad escorted me and my friend to school, and from the next day on we cycled the 1.5miles to school alone. This was rural Finland 18 years ago

[@danzinoraswitch3896]

I begged my mom for a year in middle school to let me walk home from school. We lived close enough that I could beat the bus walking home. It took me through a field and another neighborhood to get to my house, no major highways or roads. After a year she finally relented but was so worried about my safety she made me carry pepper spray in backpack... until it we learned that I could get suspended if I was found with pepper spray in my backpack. The culture of safety-supervision is STRONG.

[@martenkahr3365]

Meanwhile, in the 60s, if a school got a phonecall where someone threatened to shoot up the school, teachers and senior year students would bring their guns out of their cars and take turns to guard the entrances while others were in class. And the shooter would never show up or make themselves known.

[@Redokev]

why is that a valid reason for suspension

[@actually5004]

@@Redokev Parents will sue the school into oblivion over allergies.

[@darkdruidsvale]

@@Redokev depending where you are im sure the laws vary, but to my knowledge in order to carry pepper spray you need to get sprayed yourself so its possible this could be one reason (i doubt OP was licensed to carry it but who knows) another reason would probably be for insurance reasons "student sprays fellow student" isnt exactly a headline a school wants to have spread around after all, regardless of the reasons for the spraying

[@nivyan]

@@Redokev Because children are the best AND worst of humanity? Imagine a kid being bullied. Now imagine a kid being bullied with pepper spray.

[@birdnird]

To fix this problem you will also need to pass “Free range children” laws like those in Utah and a couple of other US states, so parents will not be investigated by CPS for neglect if they allow their kids to walk to and from school unaccompanied

[@hedwig7s]

"Free range" Makes it sound like they're farm animals lmao

[@locrianphantom3547]

@@hedwig7swhat if they are…

[@MrAntice]

@@hedwig7sIt's the same principle. Free range chickens aren't in cages, I.E. they are allowed to move around freely, and do whatever they please. Most children today aren't free range. They aren't allowed to roam freely, they are moved around in a rolling cage without any autonomy what so ever when going anywhere. Not only that, but the activities at these destinations are highly curated experiences.

[@hedwig7s]

@@MrAntice That's the joke

[@hithere5553]

@@hedwig7schildren unironically are treated as if they’re under house arrest until they get a license in the US. They can’t go 500ft from their own house unsupervised.

[@Deckzwabber]

The irony is that people who are more afraid of 'bad' people often have fewer social encounters with strangers and develop their social skills less well, thus becoming more vulnerable to people with bad intentions. The same goes for children. Less exposure = less awareness.

[@floycewhite6991]

Crime has a color. You put the word "bad" in quotation marks because you're pretending and you want us all to pretend along with you. Ignoring the color of crime, teaching your children to ignore the color of crime, is not awareness. It's cringing cowardice and criminal neglect.

[@trawrtster6097]

All this fear mongering of strangers means fewer people go outside, which means even fewer people who watch out for each other. The presence of people deter crime.

[@jakethesnake9484]

@@floycewhite6991If you would take the time to educate yourself you would know the true “color” of crime is poverty, and not whatever you think it is

[@lws7394]

@@floycewhite6991 Crime ? Back in the day when more children walked to schools , the 1980s, there was a lot more crime and violence on the streets than nowadays ! It is half of that of the 80s and mid 90s , but media make as if it is 'shocking' . So basically the streets should be safer for that matter... Meanwhile a big risk for misery nowadays is your GP prescribing fentanyl or oxycodon for something like a dental treatment ... 3550 opioid ODs in Canada and a whopping 100k in US annually !

[@maleahlock]

@ Deckzwabber That's just not how crime works 😂

[@ShadoeLandman]

Get rid of stroads. Start school later so kids aren’t walking in the dark. Protect kids from bullying on walks and on busses. Stop allowing parents to be accused of neglect for allowing kids to go on their own.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

FFS. Being bullied is part of growing up. Kids have to learn to defend themselves.

[@BagOfButtons]

​@@nonyadamnbusiness9887Ah yes, metaly scarring a child for the rest of their lives and making them feel like something is wrong with them, that they cannot be loved, that they deserve getting kicked, punched, shamed for nothing and socially outcasted. Do you even realize how idiotic you sound? EVEN if they defend themselves they will probably get punished by the school for getting into a fight

[@ShadoeLandman]

@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 It's often not possible to defend yourself, and children do away with themselves over bullying that's too bad. People like you that just look the other way are part of the problem.

[@keekwai2]

Yeah! Who needs stroads? (whatever they are)

[@ShadoeLandman]

@@keekwai2 Stroads are a horrific combination of streets and roads that are unsafe for pedestrians. They're wide with fast-moving traffic, with few if any crosswalks, and are are usually in the middle of commercial/shopping areas of towns and cities.

[@arenkai]

It's also important to note that the reason streets aren't "safe" to walk alone in North America is because there's nobody on them. You're way less likely to get abducted or assaulted if you're on a path with other people.

[@okaycola2]

Yep

[@nayhem]

Which makes that "walking school bus" idea interesting

[@chloskyskies4399]

Also the lack of safe places to walk, like sidewalks (ie not be walking on a busy road)

[@crazyasalways9272]

​@@chloskyskies4399A 100% like we live fairly close to the school that my son would go to if it was not ranked in the 13000 in school rankings in the Us And there is next to no sidewalks nepress and the road is severely busy at all times of the day and people will actively try and hit people who are walking

[@ThomasPowellNZ]

Statistically, if anyone's going to abduct or assault my children, it's most likely going to be me.

[@lynnhettrick7588]

Another thing not mentioned in the video is the weight of backpacks. I never even had a backpack until college. I either just carried my books in my arms or had an over-the-shoulder bag. But I rarely had heavy books to cart back and forth. But my kids had full backpacks from about 6th grade to 12th grade. Some kids have backpacks heavier than themselves. Hard to walk even 7-8 blocks with a heavy backpack.

[@maryl8753]

Nope in Aust (1969s and 70s) we all had really heavy backpacks and were just expected to get there even in baking heat.

[@crazyasalways9272]

0 100%. My back is still all kinds of messed up and I'm turning 27 I have been out of school since i was 16 because i was able graduate early and i had been home schooled from around eighth grade so sometime around 15 years old. ( Reason was the fact that I kept being bullied and ekept escalating to the point in which I record one of the girls physically making a death threat on my life, played it for the principal and got in trouble for having my phone, didn't do s*** to her. She also went and punched me in the back of the school and now I have permanent brain damage. But her daddy Came in and protected her. Which jokes on him? Because turns out if he had had her face consequences as a child. She probably wouldn't have gone to jail for murder.)

[@samsingh0]

Wow that took a turn

[@Domebuddy]

It took too much time to go to my locker between classes when i was in highschool so I just walked around with every single book in my backpack, and man was it heavy, I credit that bookbag with my massive muscle growth during highschool even though I never worked out.

[@ruthanneluvsvacuuming6653]

In middle school I had a heavy book bag and in high school if I wasn’t careful how I packed it I would end up with a ripped book bag because it was so heavy and I’m 54 now

[@aidanknight]

Great video. This has really been on the front of my mind since we had a kid in 2020 - How to give children independence at a young age, so that they are setup to navigate teenagehood and adulthood. We've locked kids into restrictive bubbles by creating cities completely catered to vehicles they can't operate until they are 16+ years old.

[@LeoMidori]

Totally. When I was a kid in the 90's my parents never had any problem with me going anywhere, or other kids as long as our parents had an idea where we were, or that we'd be home for dinner. I walked a couple miles in suburban neighbourhoods without sidewalks to the closest corner or video stores just fine below the age of ten, I just was told to watch the traffic and did.

[@aidanknight]

@@LeoMidori Same. We played street hockey, walked over to each other's houses in the neighbourhood, to school or biked to the corner store every day. The increase in cars (size and weight), stroads, strip malls, and sprawl has negatively impacted kids' abilities to have a similar level of freedom.

[@Bull3tBikes]

Not only that , here in BC with the GLP you must have a co driver during your L stage so you won’t be able to operate a vehicle ALONE until at least 17 most are almost finished high school by that point....

[@fancyincubus]

Thank the auto industry for hijacking the American dream (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

[@aidenhall8593]

EXACTLY! I am so glad you and hopefully all of the next generation of parents can see this!

[@Tera_GX]

I remember when I was young I actually envied the kids that got to walk or bike to school. But the way my mom lived, I know that she "100% knew" that I'd be abducted by a child molester the moment I walked on my own. She's always eaten up all the fear mongering. Actually I'm pretty sure she still believes that, even far into my adulthood. Still turns any attempt to go for any walk into an argument.

[@McCaroni_Sup]

Maybe proving to your parents that you can protect yourself can assuage their fears. Things like taking self defense classes (as in, the ones that focus on gross motor techniques that actually work instead of bullshido action movie crap), devices such as stun guns and pepper spray, exercising to make yourself stronger, or if you or your parent(s) aren't opposed to the idea - carrying and training with a concealed firearm. If your parents still don't acquiesce after all that, they're frankly a lost cause.

[@LS-Moto]

@@lindseyh5655 If you are 22, you are a full grown adult. Go for a walk. Your mother is no longer in charge of you and cannot prohibit it. It is a form of abuse if your mother denies you basic fundamental freedoms like going for a walk. If she has incredible anxiety, she needs to go get help. But she cannot isolate you at home. How long does she want to maintain that? Until she dies?

[@leviisdead]

i'm glad my mom never let me as a kid, even when i begged, because i never realized how bad of a neighborhood we lived in.

[@skankhunt3624]

​@@LS-Moto don't talk about mother like that.

[@HermesHeals]

@@lindseyh5655Just go for a damn walk your 22 years old. Carry pepper spray or something just to calm her nerves

[@chrisgraham2904]

As a "baby boomer" I've always had a different perspective on this issue. When I started my education odyssey in kindergarten, my mother walked me to school for the first three days. After that, I walked the seven blocks to school everyday until the end of elementary school, having never ridden to school in my parent's car, school bus or public transportation. My Toronto neighbourhood was 6 blocks wide and 10 blocks deep and all the children of the neighbourhood attended the same school with an enrollment of about 350 children. As stated; I was a "baby boomer" and there were so many of us. When I exited the front door of my home in the morning, it would be extremely rare if I did not meet up with friends within one minute. Within a few minutes, we would be 4 to 8 kids goofing off as we made our way to school. Safety in numbers. Drivers don't miss seeing 6 or 8 noisy kids walking down the sidewalk or crossing the roads. Nor was an abductor going to approach a group of children. We were "free range kids" who spent the majority of our time outside, on the streets, in the parks or in ravines whenever possible, on weekends and all summer long. As a result, I knew where every kid lived and I knew the families that lived in every house. Out of any 6 houses on a street, I knew that I could safely go to any 4 of those houses if there were an issue, or I needed help. By the time I owned my own house in a similar neighbourhood and I had children, they were the only kids living on our street of about 40 houses. They didn't walk to school until grade 5, because when they walked to school, they were alone.

[@namedrop721]

This is one of the correct answers that I think people are missing Isolation from the economy and populations and neighborhoods changing as home ownership and long term jobs are gone for many (everywhere is also far more transitory-how do you know the neighbors when they’re different every 6 months?)

[@AndrewAMartin]

@@namedrop721 And combine that with consolidating schools for 'efficiency' so that they're no longer in the same neighborhood as the children they serve...

[@Coffeepanda294]

The safety in numbers part is such a good point. I think a lot of people are missing that it wouldn't just be _one_ kid walking to and from school, it'd be hundreds. Plus all the other people who would be out and about on foot or on bikes in a more walkable society.

[@FiercelyGold]

For the first couple weeks of school this year my child walked or biked and we stopped because it was easier to be on time and get more sleep if we drove. Plus as you said, my child was walking with me or alone. My child normally walks home from school, but not because of work schedules which I thought was not a full perspective on that issue. In the afternoon some parents are happy to see their kid walk home or walk to my home with mine and get picked up from there because there's no set time constraint. There's also no adults speeding through the neighborhood trying to get to work on time, which is scary. There's some people that park their cars outside and on a cold morning they can barely see out their window and I don't trust them not to run over my child when they're pulling out their driveway. Of course we have to teach our children about safety around cars, but it is an added risk in the morning that's not as bad in the afternoon

[@karllieck9064]

Are you kidding? It is now sport for maniacs to drive their cars into crowds of people.

[@uninvincibleete]

I love the walking school bus idea! In Japan they do something really similar, a few select students act as 'block captains' for their neighborhoods and collect the younger students from hyper-local meetup points, then walk to school together. It's a great way to teach kids responsibility, form a sense of community, let kids get to know the other students who live near them, cut down on driving, and get some daily steps in. The lead students also either carry a flag or wear a vest, so between that and the gaggle of kids it's really easy to spot them walking from a distance (much easier for a car to see than, say, a lone 9-year-old). Sometimes older folks will also station themselves at the crosswalks near their house, which is great to give them a sense of purpose and community while they help the kids stay even safer. It's a win-win-win-win! I'd love to see more of that in Vancouver.

[@KaticornFeegle]

Japan does SO many things right. And it's mainly a combination of people incapable of minding their own business due to social media obsession and corporate greed and influence in the US that keeps these ideas out of our society. I grew up on a dead end road, and had our school been walkable, since we all played together growing up the walking school bus or block captain would have worked like a charm. As it was, it wasn't unheard of for the rest of the kids to come to my bus stop to catch the bus since we had a circle drive and were the first house on the street with kids. Happened a lot during late days due to weather and such since my mom worked from home as a hairdresser. Society was SOCIETY back then. Not a bunch of keyboard warriors and gossip queens keeping their little families isolated for fear of people just like them. Even now, at my house because I go to work after the kids get picked up at the bus, there's a group of kids that all wait together (most are walked to the stop) for the bus stop in front of my house. And more parents are doing the same now that I've moved in because the kids love my dog, and I'm out watching and drinking my coffee on the porch. I encourage the kids to throw toys for Huck (I have a fenced yard) and he loves to fetch and bring the toys back. They'll run along the sidewalk with him and play and it's good healthy fun and exercise for all of them. People need to quit being so damn insular. When neighbors talk, the community is tighter and safer and the bad seeds are found out and watched/avoided/reported FAR more readily than keeping kids locked away from the neighborhood.

[@H.A.Sproductions]

I live in Canada and there is a patrol system where a bunch of kids at an intersection block of traffic for people crossing the street

[@allisonsnyder2998]

You focuses a lot on younger kids, but I find it interesting for high school. My area was fairly wealthy, so 80% of high school kids would get their own car or inherit a hand-me-down. Then, they drive the younger siblings to school too. It's a social status that high schoolers strive to show off.

[@FiercelyGold]

That's true and also the high school is significantly farther away. I don't know about y'all but we have a bunch of elementary schools, a few middle schools and two high schools in my child's district and also when I was growing up. Elementary school kids have a shorter walk to school, but also we're more afraid for them. My kid would have to take the bus or bike to get to their high school and I'm not really comfortable with them biking to their high school because of how far it is and how dangerous the stroades are over there.

[@BusArch42]

We mandated ours do this. The HS is ten miles from our house and there are no walking g or bike paths. It is absolutely unsafe. Mine used to give rides to plenty of neighbors too. We live in a developed area but our district cut busing way way back after we bought. Believe me the next time they have a bond or tax increase for busing we will vote no. We voted yes for many years and the schools just kept cutting services.

[@ayaraen]

I think a major reason highschoolers drive is also because of just how insanely far they usually are from their zoned neighborhoods/residential zones. For us, although they’re only a few miles away, the insane winding sidewalks make it an often hour long walk or more. Further, 3 out of the 7 neighborhoods and apartment zones that are zoned to our highschool literally are not connected to it via sidewalks or even stroads. Despite this, our school parking lots are tiny, and have only one entrance: one entrance to each lot at a school of roughly 3000-4000 students. Traffic alone usually increases a 5-10 minute drive to 20-30 minutes. They keep telling students to walk or bike, but since our school starts at 7:00, we would literally have to wake up at 5:00 am or even earlier just to make it on time. Its ridiculous.

[@BusArch42]

@@ayaraen spot on. Ours doesn’t even have a walking or bike path most of the route. It’s over ten miles and not a safe road at all. Just last year a HS girl was killed in a head in collision on the way to school. People speed like crazy and the limit of 45 mph is way too high for someone to walk or ride a bike even if they didn’t speed. There’s no busing either so not a lot of options. Parking is so limited that people arrange favors with families who live in the area to allow their kids to park in driveways near the school. And yes the school they went to up until last school year had 2500 students with only one entrance. Traffic is insane. We had ours leave early to avoid the worst traffic and they just sit in the car and visit with friends until school starts. It was safer that way

[@eatingyoshi4403]

@@BusArch42 pretty much the exact same scenario, 7 miles no bike lanes or walking paths to get through and then also there is the interstate right in the middle of it so I would have to either walk across the road while there is a red light and hope no one hits me (guarantee wouldn't survive until the end of the year because that place is insanity) I could take a 2 mile detour to avoid this but at that point its a 5 hour trip and still dangerous.

[@Rickie-37]

On a serious note, the elementary school by my work has a volunteer traffic flagger who break dance to his music and waves to all the drivers. Seeing someone so passionate in protecting the kids and having so much fun always puts a smile on my face too. He makes me want to go the extra mile to make roads safer for those kids. He might just be one person but he's making a world of difference for sure.

[@ZentaBon]

make sure you tell him that one day

[@ItsCatchin]

I think another part of this issue is that people don’t talk to their neighbors as much anymore. There were definitely some shady spots in my neighborhood on the walk to elementary school, and after my brother graduated, my mom was able to coordinate with our neighbor for me to walk to school with their kid for strength in numbers. These days someone new can move in to even a nice neighborhood and never meet their neighbors, let alone the ones that have kids the same age as their own. Loss of community also contributes to the feeling of mistrust that motivates parents to drive their kids anyway.

[@ianhomerpura8937]

This is why in some countries, the tradition is to give food to all your neighbors when you throw a party or something. Helps a lot with socialization and building rapport.

[@corail53]

This is mostly the late gen x - millennial group who are parents now - we grew up having lots of freedoms but also became self-isolating in that as a group hate talking on phones or being bothered by neighbors or answering the door. It is a very weird thing to have watched happen in real time but this is what it is.

[@llIlIlllII]

I'm a millennial who's considering MAID because of the isolation :)

[@bassyey]

@Zaydan Alfariz Most South East Asian countries do too. Kids here actually have real freedom to detour when they go home, hang out with friends without being driven around by helicopter parents - this must be awkward lol. Imagine trying to have fun with everyone but your parents need to you there, wtf. This also builds independence of the child.

[@Oatmea1L]

​@@llIlIlllII Go ahead. Do it, 🌩️🧔🏿🌩️

[@esseil]

I'm afraid I don't have time to read through 6,829 previous comments to see if this has already been addressed, but I think another contributing factor is that these days we give kids far less credit for having common sense than we did in the past. I was walking around the block by myself when I was 4, and also to school (started just a month before my 5th birthday). Granted, the school was only 2 blocks away, but a year later I was walking 6 blocks and the next 3 years it was 10 blocks. And I wasn't alone -- we all walked or biked to school, even up to about a mile and a half. I think the only time I was ever driven to school was when I was scared of a thunderstorm, because we just didn't have them where I grew up and we did hear a lot about people getting hit by lightning. The difference, I think, is that we listen to pop psychologists who blather about children's brains not being fully developed until at least age 18, and somehow that gets interpreted as kids not having any ability to think for themselves. When I was young (I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s) we knew not to talk to strangers (even before the nauseating "stranger danger" phrase). When we played cops and robbers, or similar games that now are not politically correct, we knew it was bogus to fall down dead then count to ten and be alive again. Now, to be fair, we also had a much higher percentage of stay-at-home mothers, and if there actually was some kind of problem then there was always an adult around to help, even in the high-cost San Francisco Bay Area. As you point out in the video, this is a multi-faceted issue without a simple, single solution. I'm just presenting another aspect that I think needs to be considered. Kids aren't stupid!

[@crazyasalways9272]

What's interesting about the whole? Oh, their brains aren't fully developed until the tiller 18. In reality, your pre frontal cortex continues to develop. And you do not have a fully functional brain until you are 25 when that is done. Which is your reasoning center? However, I know smarter teenagers than I do adults.

[@hannahpapernick-yudin2846]

People definitely try harder than they need to now, it's ridiculous. Although my situation as a Gen Z was amplified by living near a busy intersection where traffic was so bad a crossing guard was used during school hours, I would have been far more outgoing and maybe even smarter as a kid if I had been allowed to just go anywhere by myself. But I was barely allowed unsupervised on my neighbourhood sidewalk until age 12, and just walking anywhere on my own was out of the question until age 13. I always knew the kidnapping thing was low-key bogus, even brought up to my parents that no one would grab me if I was in a busy area. Especially on the subway; where would they even take me? But they made some excuse that with there being so many people, it would actually be easy for me to be pulled away in a crowd with no one noticing (ignoring that any person in that situation with common sense, even a kid, would start screaming and get people's attention). I actually had neighbors from Mexico whose kids were allowed to go throughout Toronto alone, because the parents viewed Toronto as comparatively safer than Mexico and had a more positive attitude towards the subject. So I always wonder why my parents wouldn't just connect to the dots considering those kids were never kidnapped and are still alive to this day.

[@eri_noemi1462]

It IS true that a child's brain doesn't fully develop until they're in their 20's. However, you SHOULD teach them responsibility as early as possible. The sooner you teach them positive behavior, the better.

[@ChiefMakes]

@@hannahpapernick-yudin2846my school was a 2 minute drive (at 20mph) from my home and is still had to go with my mom to drive

[@avalonwarriormage35]

I can assure you people are still playing cops and robbers stop with this "political correctness" nonsense.

[@alanthefisher]

When I grew up the majority of my school years were spent walking to school with a friend or two of mine from the same neighborhood. It was one of the most freeing activities as a kid and young adult; time away from parents and with friends was a treat, so its a shame that so many kids don't get to experience the same independence that I had. It's eye opening too because I grew up in a suburb that was built before WW2, so not only is it possible to walk to school in a urban environment, but its also very possible with good planning to walk in a suburban environment too.

[@GreenEarth20]

That sounds pog, my 40-50 minute walks one way were always alone, shit was a grind. Music only helped so much. In hindsight I could've biked, but parking your bike at the high school was asking to get your tires slashed.

[@vaiyaktikasolarbeam1906]

@@GreenEarth20 that was disheartening

[@vaiyaktikasolarbeam1906]

alan fisher spotted!

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

You know it's a good comments section when Alan shows up

[@PeterAuto1]

I agree, walking to school and back were highlights on the school day. We liked to stop at the backery or having snowball fights

[@deerdude1]

As an European, this shocked me. I started walking to primary school alone at like 8 years old, now I go to high school by public transit or by bike if the weather is nice. I've never had a serious accident. Going to school by car is a rare occasion for me and I can't imagine living in a place where almost everyone goes to school by car every single day.

[@Tambolkyuriiii]

Sad

[@LluviadeOrugas]

I’m also European, but live in the US, and I’m the only parent that makes their kids walk to school even though it’s just a 20 minute walk. My kids “hate” me for that! 😊

[@andrejjj]

​@@LluviadeOrugasive been walking 20 minutes to school from 1st to 8th grade and now i walk like 30 minutes to highschool 😊

[@LluviadeOrugas]

@@andrejjj , good for you, walking is healthy! 👍 😊

[@mimii694]

I'm from the UK and live 45 minutes from my secondary and walked the whole way every day. No lifts. We have loads of bike sheds even in primary for kids who want to cycle or scooter to school (many did). You could only get a bus if you lived an hour away on foot. My sixth form/college was only 5 minutes down the road, and so was my primary. If I lived further it would've probably been a different story haha.

[@JoJoGigglessss]

I’m a city crossing guard in front of a school. It’s crazy how much traffic there is and the amount of terrible drivers involved. No stopping at stop signs, no signal usage, and dropping children off in the middle of the street. Honestly the safety is down because of these parents dropping off. They cause the most unsafe walking conditions.

[@saramations]

Ditto. My mom has been an crossing guard for a few years now. Says the same things.

[@heatheranddenerale]

My mom was a crossing guard. The parents can be crazy drivers.

[@AnoraJohnson]

Yup. I was a crossing guard for years. I pulled so many kids away from cars hurtling at the crosswalk. One driver sidewiped my stop sign...which was in my hand. Many of the most aggressive drivers had just dropped their own kids off at the school and showed no qualms about mowing down other kids.

[@jman9048]

When I was a kid, the crossing guards were all kids.

[@kenkur27]

@@jman9048 Same here! They were the older kids (Grade 6 to 8), got to wear a cool belt, took pride in being given this important responsibility.

[@lilypudd]

I love the idea of walking or bike riding together as a group with one adult. The kids are safe, they still get the freedom & independence and learn the routes to and from school.

[@MaartenvanderVeeke]

why with an adult? Over here in the Netherlands all kids bike to school from age 8 without parents. Gives them more independence

[@ChiefMakes]

@@MaartenvanderVeekeif,like the idea more if it was just with friends and/or other students

[@MaartenvanderVeeke]

@@ChiefMakes why though? Its good to give children independence from a young age. I remember it being great that I biked to school when on myself when I was a kid

[@Soff1859]

Swiss here. Agree with the dutch guy. Why would this have to be some kind of organised activity with an adult? Sure its a little step up from having the parents drive each individual kid in their own car right to the school door. But its still really far from "independence". Being able to manage your own time and getting side tracked when there is something interesting on the way, is exactly what teaches independence. Some adult who sternly points at their watch the second you stop to watch a squirrel or pet a cat totally defeats the purpose. When we went to kindergarten at age 5, a few hundred meters from home, our mum walked us the first week and from then on we went alone. Then we went to primary school at age 7 across town, about 1km away. Same story walk first few times with parents and then alone. Then at age 12 we went to middle school in the neighbouring town by bike, 2.5km away, again probably with parental oversight the first day or so and then alone from there on.

[@theclairewhy]

@@MaartenvanderVeekeif we're gonna get Americans to agree to do something, we have to compromise. then hopefully we keep going forward

[@victoriarotramel2274]

Our city just built a gorgeous new public library that is a quarter of a mile from the elementary school. Except the kids cant walk to the library because they have to cross a 6 lane highway with cars going 50 mph TWICE. And if they did, the sidewalk is right next to the highway and has quite a few sections that just haven’t been built. Then when you get to the library the parking lot doesn’t have any sidewalks either so pedestrians going in and out of the library have to walk in the road to get to their cars. It’s very sad to see.

[@corail53]

That is just bad city planning. Petition the city to make a walkway over the highway.

[@Havanorange]

that, and a barrier to keep cars and trucks away from the sidewalk

[@Cyrus_of_the_Hills]

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

[@WitchMedusa]

Then get a car... Your being dumb, very few people who need a city library will live walking distance to it. They are appealing to the majority of people

[@reddbendd]

Buy an electric scooter they go up to 50mph - possibly not safe for elementary school students but it would work

[@definitelynothere7736]

my mom raised us in the new parenting norm as well. The "never let your kids be unsupervised" type of parenting. Now we're 15,14 and my mom is beginning to regret it. more than anything shes pushing for me and my brother to get out of the house. She loves us, but she wants us to be more independent. Even though grandparents can sound insane, it does build character. As children that will one day become adults, you need to prepare them for that. Even if its just one step at a time.

[@scottchampion]

Wow 15 yo advocating very well 👏

[@libertycommentator]

Sadly, there are too many Karens who are eager to report parents to CPS just for not supervising their children 24/7

[@peperoni_pepino]

Honestly the scariest part are parents who raise their children super supervised right until they are 14 or 15 (like you), and then give them a car at 16. I really, really do not like sharing the road with kids trying their newfound independence and freedom, who yet to understand how freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. (Not that I own a car at the moment, no place to park it in this grad dorm.) It also hurts that the US barely has any 'third places' (~casual date places, bowling alleys, swimming pools, game centers with snooker and air hockey tables, etc.), so even if you were to get out of the house were would you go?

[@TheRosgath]

This is what I keep trying to tell my son's mother, but she refuses to listen. My son just turned 6, and I'm actively trying to encourage him to go play with other kids and he's excited to start walking to school once he starts first grade. Independence is learned and if you never give a child the opportunity to learn to trust and believe in themselves and their own decisions, you're setting yourself and them up for failure later in life.

[@guitarcrazy02]

Very wise words for someone 14/15. Your generation really does give me hope for our future.

[@gohanr1271]

as a kid that would walk home from school, it was also just a very important time for my development. I could decompress and chill on the walk back from school if i was alone -and if I wasn't, I got to socialize with friends and deepen my social bonds. Towards the end of my time in high school my parents began picking & dropping me off and it actually made me feel very dysregulated! i think having that time and space in 'the in-between' helped get my mind attuned to being in school or being at home.

[@rogergeyer9851]

Gohan R: Sure: But there's a big difference, between a 15 to 18 year old boy walking to or from high school a mile or two, and a 6 to 8 year old kid trying to safely navigate that distance to their school. As a health 15 to 18 year old, I could run, smash an aggressor's face with my Chemistry book, etc, if I were picked on by an adult. As a 6 to 8 year old, that would have been a LOT uglier. In America, there's little supervision except at dangerous and busy crosswalks, and little in the way of pedestrian safety infrastructure generally. So depending on where you lived, circumstances varied a LOT, whenever you grew up.

[@Pedro-of4tn]

Yes!, i agree with everything or almost everything that you typed. I remember how having a small window of time to myself before school or after school was beneficial for me, though i did not always realize it.

[@Lyle-xc9pg]

@@rogergeyer9851 god calm down. I always walked to school ever since 1st grade.

[@dosomestuff1949]

@@Lyle-xc9pgwhat if u got atttafked? What would u do????

[@Lyle-xc9pg]

@@dosomestuff1949 this is a normal thing almost everywhere in the world, god

[@kailee5694]

I walked to school in the 1960’s and purposely chose to raise my daughter within walking distance to a suburban grade school. That was great until the day she came home scared and out of breath. It seems a man tried to get her into a car on the walk home from school. From that point on, I drove her the 4 blocks to and from school. It broke my heart that she wasn’t safe walking a few blocks to school.

[@tisvana18]

Hell, I was almost kidnapped at the bus stop and walking home from the bus stop when I was in middle school. Got followed home. I was walking across only about 6 or 7 lots. This was the mid aughts. I don’t know about other states, I don’t think it is safe to walk to school in Texas at all, no matter how close you live (and I walked directly to school every day in HS). I’m not the only person I know who was almost grabbed. I’m torn because I want my daughter to get that feel of independence from walking to the bus stop, I want her to be able to handle things on her own… but I was a very ugly kid. She’s very conventionally pretty, and despite every attempt I’ve made to get her to not run off with strangers or develop common sense, she still tries to wander off with random families in the mall if allowed to walk. And she is fearless which is great until it isn’t. I don’t think I can ever trust her to make that walk alone. She would be too much of an easy target for a kidnapper.

[@myghost.bsky.social]

the world has become very dangerous

[@ZalemMoon]

In high school, I almost got snatched up in a van while waiting at a bus stop. I lived too far to walk and still wasn't even safe taking the bus. Learned very quickly to stand far back from the street behind the bench and carried one of those keychains that have an alarm on it.

[@jasonacg]

The era of helicopter parenting, I believe, is one of the biggest reasons for the lack of independent children. But one thing that wasn't mentioned, is school bus service. How many students are along a school bus route today, compared to 20-30 years ago? Here in the US, that seems to be one of the first services that gets reduced when budgets and staffing come up short. It seems that an overwhelming number of K-8 students used to arrive and depart by the yellow school bus, if they were beyond the radius for walking/biking to school, but seemingly not so much anymore. Has there been any study of that?

[@rinlo1424]

Exactly. Where I live school buses are now only available for students who live 4 or more miles away from their school. And I think the safety issue is also a thing. There aren't just many more cars on the roads today, there are SO many distracted drivers on their cell phones.

[@sheilanixon913]

In GErmany children do walk to school and children are allowed to play out with their friends who live nearby. In Britain and America , children are over-controlled and protected by their parents , and can only play with children invited to each others homes ie the parents' ' friends . My grandson is aged 17 and so is his cousin. They are only just starting to be allowed to meet their friends socially during the day and in the evening.. THis is over-protection gone mad !

[@tienglongmy]

Helicopter parents is an insult made up by boomers, the worst parents of all of human history, to counter the term their children were called, the "latch key kids".

[@kianawebster7972]

I'm not sure about this. In my area (United States), our bus routes adjust every year to pick kids who are just entering school vs kids who have already graduated, and we usually get a note from school about it. I'm surprised this isn't the case everywhere...

[@robertmurry1442]

right?!?! i was like..... SCHOOL BUSSES... do they not have these anymore? it was a perfect place to chat with friends or study/do homework

[@Matty002]

its weird that hardly anyone is mentioning that all this walking does wonders for your mental and physical health

[@fdsfdsjghk]

Walking is the most normal thing a person does. It's not necessarily healthy, being overreliant on cars to do anything is unhealthy instead. Sadly, even fucking walking is a rare thing over there in the US due to all the lobbying, nimby's, dumbass politicians etc. US is a big joke in many more aspects and I'm afraid it won't change for a very long time. Y'all think you're living the american dream and shit but future generations are laughing their cracks off at americans in their history books

[@ADarnSmore]

because it doesn't really

[@Coffeepanda294]

Also that, conversely, driving kids to school is terribly bad for their physical and mental health. Heck, it even means they don't really know their neighbourhood. There's been studies done where kids who walked and bikes everywhere, and kids who were driven everywhere, were asked to draw maps of their neighbourhoods/hometowns. The latter group simply couldn't, they drew incredibly simplified and inaccurate maps, while the kids who got around on their own accord, of course, drew way more accurate and detailed maps. Lettings kids go on foot or by bike also essentially lets them roam free. They can pick a different path home, stop by somewhere for candy, play in a field, what have you. It's also way more social as lots of kids walk home with their friends.

[@BANDERAZZ07RUS]

who needs health, when they live in "my body is my rules" world?

[@gunnarray5978]

As an American high schooler, I think a big issue for this is early start times and low use of public transport. My school starts at 7:35 (and I have a zero-hour class), and even with an electric scooter that I could potentially take, it doesn't make any logical sense due to the extreme planning and early wake-up times that it would take. I also personally love public transport, but there is a terrible stigma in my community that it's creepy, unsafe, and associated with poverty. All of these issues would need to be addressed before active transport becomes more normalized

[@moonlight4665]

Your school STARTS at 7:30? wow, I've never even heard of one starting before 8. What time would it end?

[@thecriscokidd290]

​@@moonlight4665mine starts at 7:30 and ends at 3:15

[@okaycola2]

People just say that bc you have to be polite to strangers who may be poor. The bus is the best

[@ethansprague2005]

​@moonlight4665 mine start at 7 15 and ends at 2 15, I get a late start thankfully since I'm a senior

[@ayaraen]

thats pretty similar to my school’s situation - most of our bus stops are at least 10 minutes from the majority of the kids who use it, and more than like 70% of the kids there live an hour’s walk away or more. it’s literally just not possible for us to do that each day, especially when our school starts at 7:00

[@LuigiMordelAlaume]

The school by my house literally doesn't allow kids to leave unless a parent meets them at the school or bus stop. Blows my mind.

[@Fish-E-13]

who will tell the teachers that they can't legally do that💀

[@DK-fd3fi]

That is just sad

[@thndr_5468]

That's actually insane where at?

[@newmobile1455]

most schools in America does that because there afraid of being sued or fired for letting kids be kids I cycled to school everyday a 5 mile round trip

[@H.A.Sproductions]

at my school we have to tell are teachers if I am getting picked up or just walking alone

[@zestan3620]

Parenting does have a gigantic role in this. I lived a few blocks with a crossing guard helping people cross the road but my parents didn't allow me to go home. My mom would just pick me up and make me sit at her work at a nursing home for old people for 2 hours with nothing. No electronics, no television, just plain staring at a wall for 2 hours. It was until middle school when they finally gave me a key to the house and told me to go home.

[@StardustDNA]

It’s illegal in certain areas to leave a child home alone under a certain age. It’s probably why she did what she did.

[@michah321]

@@StardustDNA that's true. But something to do would have helped a lot.

[@mattschehr163]

@@StardustDNA it's not illegal now

[@niminox6479]

Wait, did you not have homework?

[@michah321]

@@mattschehr163 it's illegal to leave little kids alone, like 8 and under

[@Kiki-cs8xv]

I was a child in the 80s, and I walked to school right from day one. I don’t remember ever living in a house that was less than a mile from school. My walk to school took 20-30 mins each way. But I have so many memories from those walks. Leaving early on cold days so I could be the first kid to break the ice on the puddles. Trying to teach the crows in the trees how to talk. Exchanging secret notes with other kids by hiding them in bushes along the route. Kids lose out on so much when we don’t allow them to be independent.

[@elfishmoss1457]

Yeah, I've never had a walk to school under 15 minutes, except when I ran, that being said it was normally more like 20 minutes I was a school child after 2010 so I didn't really think this issue was so bad

[@user-sf9gs2pg1b]

With housing being pretty difficult to find, my school was like a couple hours of walking away. My other school was probably even further away. It’s sadly not viable for every kid, and isn’t always a matter of independence. As a child, I absolutely dreaded walking to school before, and so I opted to be driven instead. No fond memories of walking.

[@andyc9902]

Sounds like you had fun times in your day.

[@laartwork]

I was walking home in since 3rd grade and only remember the guy pulling up and jerking off.

[@Emiliapocalypse]

Augh totally agree!! Especially that last bit about kids missing out on so much by not being allowed to be independent. I drive around a lot for work and see a lot of people walking and the only time I see kids outside is when they’re being dragged to and from places either on foot or to or from a car. They always have to go at the parents pace, can’t explore things on their own or stop to do things like look at some plants growing along their route? Adults are all about efficiency, they don’t take time or have energy to do anything that isn’t strictly necessary. So there’s no time to brush your hand against a hedge and skip or stop to move some snails off of the sidewalk. No wonder we’re living in a very impersonal, incurious world. We’re taught to rush right from the start

[@kimberlycoldren4237]

I also think divorced parents plays into this as well, since students aren't coming from the same household/neighborhood everyday. The video mentioned talking about parents' commute schedule but also need to consider siblings commute schedule to different schools. Lastly school bus transportation budgets are tight and students have to spend large amounts of time commuting, which just encourages parent drop offs for those with the resources.

[@crazyasalways9272]

Also, you also have to calculate into the whole thing with the bus transportation. Is that a lot of schools like? I know at the very least. The beginning of this year just lost their students like they didn't know where they were. My city was guilty of it and it was the elementary school, like it was a bus full of kindergarteners. They could not find them and the guy had Quit before the beginning of the school year and they trained No One on the bus route they didn't have a radio which vibrate turns on they. Did they never tried it? The police couldn't find them turns out they weren't actually looking for them. They were sitting in the parking lot, not joking either. I live in a small town. So this is like if you can get lost here. You're a complete and utter idiot. And these poor kids didn't get home until almost 10 at night and there was no news coverage. It was on the nosing neighbor page and that was it.

[@Spiffyo]

This is a legitimate facet that I think has lead to the shift the most. With either parent being in two places due to joint custody the kid is an outsider in the homestead of the parent they spend less time with, and the more harrowing part is that if it's not joint custody due to instability of the other parent, they may try to take the kid on their walk home, after all you're more likely to be kidnapped by someone you know.

[@KatieGrady1997]

I think about this situation all the time. It takes an hour to walk to my child’s school, but only 6 minutes to drive. They start school at 7:30. Needing to leave the house by 6:30 (when it’s still dark all school year long) just doesn’t make sense. We actually live in a fairly nice town, but unfortunately the roads between school and home are by far the most dangerous. Not only do I worry about places with no sidewalks, the railroad tracks, and the underpass… but we’ve had a huge influx of homeless (and often mentally ill people) coming to town. There was a law passed where every town has to have a place they can camp. When we leave in the morning, or we’re coming home for the night, you see them all over the main road. It’s all really sad. I grew up here, and less than 10 years ago you would see very young kids all over town alone. It felt so safe. It’s not like that anymore.

[@plushnautilus1553]

One of the reasons I hate walking to school is that it’s kind of embarrassing. Being the only person walking right next to a super fast road feels like all eyes are on you literally the whole time. The worst part is, there are so many tall trucks and heavily tinted windows that I often cannot even see the driver. This makes 4 way stops confusing and scary, never knowing if the car I’m crossing in front of even knows that I’m there. Not to mention that the sidewalks would be lucky to get plowed before dismissal in the case of heavy snow, but the roads will always be perfect by 6:00am. This means that I am often walking on the actual road, which has lead to several very close encounters.

[@abdullahaanawaleh]

Yes, terribly built roads like these are a big problem. They're called stroads and they're not good for anybody. We need more pedestrian friendly streets with wider sidewalks and narrow spaces for cars. They're forced to go slower and people switch to walking if reasonable. Then it becomes mainstream.

[@ihintrr]

Nah I get it, what helps me is that at the end of the day nobody gives a fuck about you and who's to hate on somebody trying to be active? As for snow...Walk on it? It's safer than ice and the falls build character. Good luck man

[@IfYouInsist]

@@ihintrrpeople will absolutely fuck with/throw shit at people that are walking in some areas.

[@fkhan2006]

I started walking to school and got a blood test, and the amount of bad cholesterol in my blood LITERALLY DROPPED. I changed nothing about my lifestyle except for walking home from school, and my health improved. I still live in a dangerous town to walk in, and almost got hit by a huge truck when waiting to cross the street. : )

[@rafaeltorre1643]

You were burning your sugar intake. When I was a kid most kids walked. Now parents would go crazy letting kids walk alone. And it was normal to stay home alone around 10 years old. Now the parent would be in jail for lfe and a social media star for worst parent. Haha. I have a huge scar on my stomach from an exposed bolt climbing tires 15 feet high and someone pushed me. A girl. Never considered it to be the schools fault. Now the school would be sued for billions

[@nogames8982]

Again, I'm glad I grew up when I did. In the 70s and 80s most kids did walk to school. Even if they lived far enough away to take the bus most didn't.

[@clevelandbrown6947]

I started walking to school and got various tests, and the amount of surgery-threatening scoliosis LITERALLY ROSE. I changed nothing except my lifestyle except for walking home from school, and my health turned horrible.

[@Threezi04]

@@clevelandbrown6947 Guess there was already something really abnormal about your health to begin with then, or maybe you just have utterly horrendous posture and gait

[@ludifoe5039]

@@clevelandbrown6947 stop the🧢

[@rageguy.]

Way back when I was a kid, I walked to elementary, and to secondary school by myself. The road outside the schools were not packed with cars. These days, it's a parking lot. Such a shame, walking was such a joy back then. Uytae, I love your videos, you are such a gem in Vancouver, keep it up.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Same here. When I walked to school the town roads were mostly empty.

[@laurie7689]

I don't know how old you are, but I'm in my 50's. I also walked to and from some of my schools as a kid. There were parents even back then that dropped off and picked up their kids on the way to and from work. One thing that has changed though is that now both parents work. There are more cars on the roads in the mornings and evenings commuting to work because women are now a large part of the workforce when they weren't as prevalent 40+ years ago. It is more often than not the women that will drop off their kids (like I did for my daughter) on my way to work. That way, I could be sure that she didn't miss the school bus because I had to leave for work before she would've even been picked up by the bus. Also, the school had a rule that a parent/guardian had to be at the bus stop with the kids. She was the only kid at our bus stop and her dad and I couldn't be there because of our work schedule.

[@blubaughmr]

My middle school was too far to walk, so we took the city bus or bicycled. A few years ago, my old school got remodeled with a giant drop-off/pick-up queue where part of our playground was.

[@Novusod]

The real difference between the current year and 40 years ago is it has become illegal in many communities to let young children walk around without adult supervision. Blame the over reaching nanny state for this.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

When we came to Toronto in 1993, our 7 year old daughter was walking by herself to school. We had no idea it could ever be different. Not too far, maybe 600 meters or so, with one 4 lane road crossing next to school (manned by an attendant during arrival/departure hours) Trip back usually took her 1/2 hour, since she had to greet all cats, and dogs along the way

[@coyote2welve]

A lot of schools in my area of the US actually don't allow children beneath a certain grade (usually 4th, 5th, or 6th) to go to school without a parent or guardian. In my experience this has only been for (public) schools in affluent areas.

[@holger_p]

How can they make such rules ? Can they ban students violating these rules ? Do parents get to prison ? Isn't this freedom of life ?

[@coyote2welve]

​@@holger_p I'm not sure of all the ways it was enforced but among them, cops patrolled town around school hours to round up school age kids who were out and about. Idk how they worked with parents. I know most of the disciplinary action was on the parents, not the student, but I personally never dealt with a parent not bringing their kid. If the parent couldn't make it, their kid just wouldn't go to school that day.

[@holger_p]

@@coyote2welve I see, but that's a completly other problem. Since the kids are no inmates in school and can leave, if they want to, it doesn't actually solve the problem. I know this from Kindergarten, there only authorized people are allowed to pick up the kid, and they are guarded not to leave.

[@jamesodell3064]

I walked to and from school from Kindergarten. My youngest son was about 14 and walked to a friend's house about a mile away and his father was shocked that we would allow him to walk that distance by himself. Sometimes in protecting our children we fail to let them grow and learn and do much more damage then the slight risks they are exposed to.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

Yep, I, in a different country, was sent shopping down the street (not far - 200 m or so) for small items like bread since I was 6 years old. My wife that age was taking her 3 year sister to child care by her self (she was going to a senior group, sister in the middle one). That was in Tallinn, Estonia (then USSR)

[@proletariennenaturiste]

A mile isn't even that far. Then again, I mostly commute on bikes, which is quicker than walking, can be close to a car's speed if you put enough effort in.

[@paddyballgame]

Anyone old enough to remember the Sesame Street short… “ a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter”? That little girl was about 6 I think. Today her mom would be under investigation for sending her to the corner store unaccompanied.

[@teentraveler1790]

I got mugged by a gang of older kids to school. Then one day this adult almost choked me to death walking back home from school.

[@WitchMedusa]

Your a perfect example of a good father it sounds like. I imagine the other kids will resent their parents when they grown up. My dad let me have a lot of freedom, just not privacy which I hated but he's still did a pretty good job. Probably why I'm super into privacy tech now tho

[@superfishman3243]

@7:05 Finally someone said what I have been trying to say for years in comment sections about "why kids don't drive anymore" or "don't go out to hang with their friends anymore". Parents today sometimes literally install trackers on their children's phones and question them about where they go and who they hang out with. This questioning causes children to not want to do social things at friends houses. This has moved social events from theaters and homes to school itself. Also many people forget but a lot of hanging out with friends is spontaneous. There's also a downside to schools that has been getting increasingly more common. Kids don't have rights. They can be forced to carry an id, or be suspended for a few days. They can be stopped and searched. They can have their backpacks and lockers searched without notice. Backpacks sometimes have to be clear so they can be looked at inside. Vehicles students or parents have in the parking lot can be searched without warning. Schools bust food selling like it is a drug ring, expelling students and criminally prosecuting them for not having licenses and whatever else they can charge them with. Look at the contraband list on student handbooks, there are many items which are basically harmless which the staff will search and find and punish students for.

[@corail53]

Which is funny because parents of these kids most certainly grew up with a lot of freedoms. I have seen this happen with my friends - near 40, and i call them out on it all the time. The world has not gotten more dangerous at all since we were kids but the paranoia has skyrocketed.

[@cmc5394oparva]

@@corail53 I'm convinced that the Amber Hagerman case was a cultural watershed that resulted in the "helicopter" parenting that's become ubiquitous these days. Parents are far less willing to let their kids go out on their own, whether to play or walk to school because of that constant low-grade anxiety. It's ultimately the product of the country increasingly becoming a low-trust society.

[@lilyhawthorne1196]

I also think it goes both ways, at least with the driving thing. The urge to drive is usually caused by a want for independence, and while having a tracker on your phone and constantly being questioned on what you did while you were out kind of kills the joy of that independence, I had a different reason for not jumping at the chance to drive. I felt like I already had enough independence to be satisfied, my mom trusted me a lot and would let me walk places on my own, let me chill at the bookstore to study all day, didn't go through my phone etc. I think that fulfilled my need for independence enough that my parents had to push me a bit to take driving classes. But I'm not everyone so 🤷‍♂️

[@manuelfriend4060]

Exactly. Boomers and other older generations right now often say things like "kids are so irresponsible, BaCk In My DaY I was running business at 14." Ya well back in your day you wouldn't get arrested for doing that. If you want kids to be responsible and inovative, then you need to give them responsibility and freedom. When me and my brothers were going to school it was already happening. They set up a little nicknack shop outside the school to sell things to other kids. Candy, keychains, other random cute stuff. It was a huge success because the kids loved it, and they made hundreds out of it (in dollars it was around one to two hundred, which is still a lot for a kid). And what did the school do? Told them they couldn't be doing that and confiscated all the money.

[@superfishman3243]

@@lilyhawthorne1196 Yes, I wasn't so worried about being questioned where I was if I was to drive, but with driving and phone it was a lot of if you get a car I then need to drive my mom to school. If I have a phone then I need to call and check up with my mom and step dad and answer calls from the step dad and give it to my mom. He was too controlling. I didn't have those types of friend groups where you travel to other peoples houses because my school changed the whole social structure, having essentially daycare at high school so they could better watch the children. You could go home or maybe to a friends house but everyone just stayed at school and waited for their parents to pick them up, either their parents picked them up early or they waited. Students joined clubs because they might be stuck at school for a while and didn't want to be bored. Dances at my school required you to stay the specific whole time at the dance (i.e. from 6pm till 8pm even if it was bad) They also, for the dance, would not let students park their own cars in the parking lot because they were worried about kids leaving and drinking at a friends house. Every student knew it was bullcrap but felt like they couldn't say anything because no one listened to them. The parents of the kids didn't really believe the rules were harsh because they didn't read them or live with them, this lead to a divide between students where you wither ignored the rules or accepted them and complained to other students.

[@randytessman6750]

As a Canadian Dad with three daughters (13,12,10) and my girls walk unless its storming. I am teaching my children how capable THEY are and for safety I stress how they should never walk alone. Not saying am doing it "the right way" but I see how my kids handle problems and am very proud of their independence !

[@tchevrier]

a parent's job is not to protect their child from the world, it is to prepare them for the world. kudos.

[@fewkeyfewkey5414]

@@tchevrier its my job to protect everyone on this planet

[@tchevrier]

@@fewkeyfewkey5414 apparently you've been slacking off.

[@rantioyebode150]

This was me, I lived in Saskatchewan and I walked to and from school in like -50, hail, rain, snow-like people who walked to and from school are just built different

[@MajesticXrank]

I wall to school my z4ddy

[@shayne_has_landed2511]

As a self proclaimed victim of the horrific school bussing system, investment in school bussing systems should significantly decrease the amount of parents driving their kids to school. I’ve always lived way too far away from my schools to walk, and I didn’t have a problem with bussing… until 2015. It was honestly fun while it lasted, most of my socializing happened on the bus, but it was a different story after 2015. I suffered through bussing until I gave up and asked my mom to drive me in high school. And so my mom had to spend an extra 90 minutes getting me to school and back every day in a gas car. I (and apparently a handful of kids on my bus, as I later found out) stopped riding the bus because the kids were so violent and mean and I just couldn’t handle it anymore. We couldn’t hold a bus driver for more than a month because they couldn’t handle the kids. As one of the last kids to get picked up on the route, I spent most of my junior high and high school years sitting in the aisle (“sitting” on 1-2 inches of a seat that already has two teenagers and their backpacks in it- not exaggerating). Though it never happened to me, there were days when kids had to “sit” 4 to a seat. And then there were the too often occasional bus breakdowns in winter weather. Aside from the impact of me then being driven to and from school every day, my horrible experience with school bussing lead to pretty severe mental health issues before I abandoned ship and asked my mom to drive me to school. I know there are a lot of kids out there with bad bus experiences who’ve abandoned the bussing system to get driven to school. I thought I was just a wimp for it until I found out other kids from my bus had also stopped riding to be driven to school for the same reasons. If our country can make the school bus safe again, there would most definitely be an increase in students riding the bus and a decrease in students driven to school. I would’ve loved to see a government investment to fix these issues for my bus, the busses in our area, and busses nationwide. I personally believe we should invest in these changes for our school bussing systems: -Employing school staff to manage student behaviors on busses -Safer bus routes (so we don’t have 4 kids to a 2 person seat) -Safer and more efficient busses (there is a nationwide campaign to electrify busses) -Better treatment and training for bus drivers

[@taleseylad1249]

Not only that but investment in public transport will be awesome. Like that schools will not have to spend on transport as much

[@rosskgilmour]

there was that one guy who had to go to court in Vancouver to let his kid ride the bus. So i can see why there’s a lot of cultural and legal pressure on parents to drive their kids to school.

[@MrZoomah]

My foster kid wants to walk to school and I want to let him. His social worker vetoed us because it's unsafe. I went above her and the next person said societal expectations say that kids have to be accompanied. ... He's 11. I can't even let him go to the skatepark without supervision.

[@danieldaniels7571]

Canada is no longer a free country.

[@Ernest0220]

​@@MrZoomah these "orthodox beliefs" of social workers really suck. They eliminate opportunities for kids learning to be independent, and force parents to be glorified taxi drivers every day.

[@ECAPS.]

@@MrZoomah Lol and people say this generation is too soft and not independent enough. How are they allowed to try to be independent and go out by themselves when shit like this happens?

[@kitsunekaze93]

@@MrZoomah probably the same people ruining playgrounds because they are dangerous... soon kids will have to wear helmets and other protective gear when going outside

[@louiszhang3050]

When I lived in China as a kid, I felt so free! I could walk to school, to my friend's homes, grab a snack with the 2 yuan that my parents would give me (about 30 cents) on the way. When my fam moved to Canada at 11 years old, I felt like I was in prison. I was bored, and unless my mom was able and willing to drive me to school, then I would just be stuck at home. And I was stuck at home, a lot. Now that I go to university in the US, I've been able to have conversations with my friends about this, and it's interesting to see how people just think being stuck at home as a kid until you're allowed to drive is normal, because honestly, it really does inhibit independence and childhood growth. Even as a uni student, I find it annoying that I have to drive so often. The high costs of gasoline, long distances, and maintenance for a car still inhibit my mobility sometimes as a 20 year old! And at least I am fortunate enough to have a car in the first place. I hope in the future, we can have more programs for more biking and walking, not only as a way to get from home to school but from home to home.

[@turboredcart]

That sounds correct. My nephews are treated like todlers.. but they are teens.

[@definitlynotbenlente7671]

​@@turboredcart in the netherlands it is normal for kids to go to schools themselves i always walked to elementairy school and took the train to high school

[@LeeHawkinsPhoto]

Lol it’s funny when you say it like this…Westerners…and especially Americans think they have a corner on freedom, when in so many ways they are more constricted and restricted than the rest of the world. America could learn a lot from the rest of the world…too bad it’s so far away.

[@Rhaspun]

I was never stuck at home. I will be around to take of any chores but after that I was off to visit different friends. I used to make some wood frame model airplanes when I was young. Those models took a long time to build. I would stay at home for something like that.

[@papaicebreakerii8180]

@@definitlynotbenlente7671I walked to school or took the bus my whole life and I’m American. Depends on where u live and how ur parents r

[@nils8876]

I live in Europe and it’s fascinating to see that children aren’t allowed to walk to school in the US, because here (I live in a big city so it wasn’t some tight knit small village) everyone have walked as soon as they started school when they turned 6. Almost no one was driven to school.

[@ScooterinAB]

It's not that they aren't allowed to. It's that people are losing their minds over a problem they created. People still walk to school. But nonsense stranger danger and decreased physical safety caused by people driving just snowballs the issue.

[@BlitzkriegOmega]

Depending on the county, it might literally be illegal as well. It's disturbing Lee common how any amount of child independence can be criminalized as "negligence".

[@Numbabu]

no walking infrastructure in many places.

[@justjoe4390]

At one point, I remember a U. S. policy that once allowed police officers to detain any child they saw walking alone. And they would keep these children at the station for several hours before even informing the parents. Americans are so freaking paranoid and wimpy.

[@terra5857]

@@justjoe4390 because it’s not safe here

[@porgy29]

It feels odd that you never mentioned school busses which have their own benefits and issues that need to be addressed. Yes, your focus was on people who lived close enough to walk, but in many places where schools are further away they have the same issues with school congestion, and walking isn't an easy solution then. I had assumed that busses or other types of transportation would have been mentioned.

[@SCIFIguy64]

This, walking or biking to school was nearly impossible for me since I lived in the country 5 miles out from the school. Only once did I ever walk home, and that was due to my parents unable to pick me up after practice. Took a good 2 hours plus hiking through some woods and over a creek to bypass an out of the way stretch of road. Getting a car finally gave me a sense of freedom in high school, didn’t have to wake up at 5 to get on the bus at 6, just left at 7 and got there 10 minutes later. Getting home, I’d just loiter in the lot with some friends til the rush out died down and still beat my bus by 45 minutes.

[@mylesgray3470]

Yea, here in the US, busses are made available to every student to get to school within a reasonable walking distance from home. When I was a kid 30 years ago. This is how 90% of kids got to school. Now Moms start work late so they can drive kids to school. It makes zero sense to me.

[@ninjagirl226]

This is my thought too. When I went to elementary school I was over a mile away originally. But I took the bus from kindergarten to 11th grade to school and if I didn’t have swim practice I took the bus home. But even in contrast to my sister who was three years younger once she hit middle school my mom always drove her. It was odd. I also recently got into an argument online with some mom at a middle school today about school buses and she was saying how it’s not safe for kids to wait outside for the bus and that the buses are not as safe as her at driving which is odd to me and I’m not that old.

[@SCIFIguy64]

@@ninjagirl226 from my experience you don’t even wait for the bus, they’ll loiter at the end of a driveway until a kid runs outside. They’ll give a good 5 minutes if no one comes out.

[@ninjagirl226]

@@SCIFIguy64 My memory from a few years ago was if they know to expect a kid they will wait and if they see you running they will wait but they didn’t stop everywhere for 5 min. It would take too long otherwise. But yeah that’s why I felt it was so stupid for the mom to say it wasn’t safe. I’ll also be that former Michigander but this lady was freaking out over light snow (I now live in this area, plows were doing amazing, it wasn’t blizzard conditions, nor was the wind bad to make a ground blizzard). And I’m not saying everything is safe but I still remember hearing that my best friend nearly died on her way to school one; missed her bus and her mom was taking her, spun on ice, and got t-boned. Had she been on the passenger’s side my friend would be dead. But I feel like that’s more rare with buses? Maybe I’m wrong. I know I ended up in a ditch in a 15 passenger van because our driver was trying to make room for a snow plow and oops. But that’s different in my opinion and my sister has done worse in her personal car driving to school/work.

[@AmeliaArdath]

The trend of vehicles getting larger/taller definitely plays into the safety concerns I have around letting the kids walk to school alone. Right now we either walk together, or take the cargo bike. They are perfectly capable of getting there by themselves, but just aren’t tall enough to be seen over the hoods of most EgoMobiles.

[@Jet-ij9zc]

The funny thing is that modern vehicles are way way safer for pedestrian.

[@captainkrajick]

@@Jet-ij9zc is it safer when you can't see someone crossing in front of your vehicle? Or is it "safer" because there are less pedestrians to hit? What study are you drawing from

[@Jet-ij9zc]

@CaptainKrajick its safer because of crumple zone and safety features like that. Modern cars are made to cave in slightly to dampen impacts. Which means cars receive more damage in accidents but whatever they hit receive less

[@captainkrajick]

@@Jet-ij9zc but that's only if the impact on the person takes more time to happen, and that's assuming the person being hit is able to cause a crumple zone on the car? Are you gonna put enough resistance to the vehicle to cause it to crumple without falling down? Is a child gonna be able to do that?

[@blubaughmr]

@@Jet-ij9zc They are less safe, because now, more than half of them are SUV's and they pulverize the pedestrian, rather than pitching them over the vehicle.

[@margaretford1011]

I think as families got smaller, parents became more protective of the few kids they had. I lived in another age - unless the weather was nasty, we walked to school and walked back and forth for lunch as well. School was only a half mile away. But I had siblings and we walked together. When there was only one left in grade school, she was driven. I used to think she was just spoiled, but now that I think about it, it may very well have been a safety concern.

[@KC-dr3cg]

So are you insinuating that they were less careful when they had more children because of one would die they still had others

[@mischievousfish]

​​​@@KC-dr3cg no it's because you can't kidnap 6 children walking together as easily as a single one

[@margaretford1011]

@@KC-dr3cg As @mischieviousfish responded, there was safety in numbers. Parents, as a whole, were appropriately protective. Kids, for example, left their homes with their mothers’ litany of cautions still ringing in their ears. The oldest kid was expected to police any younger one who went astray, so the parents did not need to hover themselves; a “parental child” shared the responsibility. Also, mothers of many children were simply too busy and exhausted to be overprotective helicopter moms; laundry alone took much much more time to do than at the present time and most things had to be ironed.

[@seishin2900]

​@@mischievousfish actually even then I'm not sure if that's fully the case because pre 90s era there were several more cases of child kidnappings despite having more kids per household.

[@TheRealScooterGuy]

Margaret, I agree with what you are saying. I wanted to say the same thing, but you said it better. There is definitely a correlation between family size and children being supervised in everything they do.

[@eldinmuller7698]

here in germany almost all students go to school either by public transport, cycling or by foot. the only times my parents ever drove me was when i was late or there was some kind of issue with the public transporting system. i've never felt unsafe although i got lost a few times when taking the wrong tram. but thats part of it and helps build character and self confidence

[@paveladamek3502]

Czech Republic here. Same. And when I was 11 I lived in Berlin (Köpenick) with my parents for a year and I would ride the tram or S-Bahn almost literally across town alone.

[@donvitopatata]

It really is interesting how different this is here compared to the US. Even in the parts considered "unsafe" it tends to be common

[@moonman8450]

Same. And I’d argue it’s more difficult to find someone to drive/walk to school with than not

[@borntoclimb7116]

​@@donvitopatata usa there is alot of paranoia

[@oiytd5wugho]

[any european country] here, same.

[@c0riinthehouse]

My niece was struck and killed by an Amazon truck in front of her school. There were no cameras, speed bumps, or any other speed calming measures. This was only a few years ago, and she walked home with her big brothers and a group of kids from their street. The kids had a cell phone for safety. My mother tracked their location and waited on the front porch for them every day. (They only lived one block away directly across the street from the school). It’s taught me that despite taking all of the precautions you can’t guarantee safety. I’ve become a drop off line mom.

[@crazyasalways9272]

I don't blame you. My brother-in-law got hit in front of the school. And this is why the schools that provides their camera footage to the police to stop school shootings. But magically, they didn't get the Footage only interviewed 1 person despite it being a high volume area. Like it was so crowded at the time. They had to do an announcement and announce that he didn't die. And the police ended up actually trying to blame it on him, saying that he was riding his bike mind. You also, they had no footage interviewed one single person, which was another adult nook. Students none of the other adults that were there nothing? And according to the people that we talked to which was the students that were there. He was walking his bike and was next to it when one of the teachers hit him. And all the injuries lineup with that as well. What was really fun though was the fact that because my mother-in-law ran out of the house to the hospital which likely was real close. The hospital is winding the charger even more. Because she didn't have his medical card on her mind you. She literally just had to go home and get it like and wanted to wait until he was stabilized. He now will not walk to school. And his bike was destroyed. And everything like it was absolutely horrible. And I don't even know she ever got a lawyer for this. But the teacher still works there. And this is in ravenna ohii

[@abdullahaanawaleh]

What a shame no precautions were taken by the local government when designing that road. No speed bumps or narrow roads around a school is outrageous. I hope we get improvements in this field but I wouldn't blame you for driving the kids there in the meantime.

[@ihintrr]

Sorry to hear that, can't imagine...Although there's risk to everything (such as eating an apple) and humans don't survive in bubble wrap. We are survives, resilient and strong.

[@arfinjalal4563]

The Amazon company is at fault

[@TraceguyRune]

Speed bumps don't keep people safe. They only bring in more money for car repair shops.

[@Db--jt7bt]

I think an overlooked reason why kids don’t walk to school anymore is how difficult it is to build new schools now. Communities often experience urban sprawl where houses and apartments go up many years before new schools. This happened where I grew up. I could walk to my elementary school, but there was a dispute over the land where a new middle and high school were supposed to be built. Class sizes ballooned and the quality of education dropped. So my parents got me into a charter school. Other kids in my neighborhood went to private, mainly religious-affiliated schools. The result was that nobody in the neighborhood knew each other that well and I had to get my mom to drive me to see friends. I finally got tired of that so I started finding creative ways to sneak around traffic on my bike, and dodging cars in a few spots. It was scary at first but I’m glad I did it because the alternative was to sit around alone playing Xbox with my brother all day until I got a license.

[@floorks]

This was my exact situation, except i’ve been in public school my entire life.

[@Thorthedhexfyttggfff]

Where I lived and still live in the area they keep on building more and more apartment buildings but not more schools they talk and talk about but never do anything

[@TEWMUCH]

I glad u didn't succumb the the Xbox! Good job for taking action.

[@Fred-yq3fs]

Nimbys galore. They dread the traffic nuisance. Nimbys also prefer to keep their house free of any neighbouring high rises, so that pushes new builds further away, and poof you get urban sprawl.

[@travonhackett1401]

Or you know get shot stabbed kidnapped etc

[@smitajky]

I came from a totally different era. Walking home from school was a time for socialising with friends. Even though I lived further away and needed a bike, I would walk the first mile with my friends. By the time I was 14 I had completed a great many all day rides and at 14 years 6 months carried a pack and rode for a week in parts of our countryside. Later in that year and before I turned 15 I did another ten days solo. The world was a lot safer with so many fewer cars.

[@herrbonk3635]

So the USA was just like Europe in this respect? (Are you american?)

[@LeeeroyJenkins]

Walking and biking to school is fatphobic according to Twitter. The blue hairs call anything that lowers obesity rates fatphobic and harass public figures that try to promote it.😑

[@RJLiams]

@@herrbonk3635 For almost 200 years the US designed its cities, neighborhoods, and towns with the express purpose of being designed for people. It wasn't until the 60's when car manufactures lobbied for these massive highways, parking lots, and roads that gutted walkable neighborhoods. Completely erroded away the idea of people first, and forced millions of low income (mostly minority) people out of their homes.

[@IMCcanTWEESTED]

That was when the Marlboros would come out and us guys would go out behind the bowling alley or auto parts store and draw perverted drawings of spoogin' wieners and big ol' titties on the cinderblock walls with Marksalot Felt Markers. Good times...in a "Gordy LaChance" sort of way.

[@Glowtrey]

While we walked with friends, we would fool around crushing automn leaves and thin ice 😁

[@GearsDatPowerDaTubes]

The young girl is such a fantastic actress! Every single shot of her looked genuine and candid. Props to her acting skills!

[@Kirrori_]

Fr

[@thhomsen]

What's there to act? sorry for being harsh, but she is simply walking or not looking directly into the camera, nothing special about it.

[@zuki9537]

@@thhomsen Very hard to make routine look this natural especially when the camera is right in your face. Try it, go on.

[@stevenbass732]

Sometime in the 70s-80s, it became "unfashionable" for kids to walk to school. But then, schools were consolidating so that there were fewer schools and larger areas .

[@clemens1993]

As a German, just to give you some perspective: My mom told me to walk alone to kindergarden when I was 5 y/o. (it was about 3/4 mile and I had to cross two roads. of course we trained a lot before that) Obviously, I also went to elementary school all alone almost from the beginning on (1.2 miles). I also rode my bike EVERY DAY (doesnt matter which weather or season) to secondary school (4 miles) for 9 years straight. The next paragraphs sound like bragging, but read through it - there is a point to the story: I had a school mate, that was doing it too (we both didn't need to financially). It meant, that we somedays pulled over full rain suits, down to the toes and also covered our backpacks in plastic bags. I also meant to wear two pair of gloves in the coldest days of winter and snow trousers and stuff xD (it's funny how normal it was. Wouldnt consider it today anymore). I remember a few days, when it was -13°C (-25°F) and I forgot my gloves somehow. It took 2h until I felt my fingers properly again. In retropespective, I think that was more dangerous than I realized. Also, on some days heavy snowfall over night (30cm / 1 foot of new snow) meant that winter service had no time to do their job yet in the morning - so we rode trough 1 foot of snow. It was slippery and sometimes frozen underneath. But it thought me great balance and control on two wheels, which transferred very well to mountain biking andhandeling a car, when you lose grip from the beginning on. (I grew up in the mountains / black forest) I had a lot of close calls, but not one accident. We also had a cycling group. These guys only rode when the weather was ok. We met at 7:10 am and rode to school together. Also most of the time we went home together and spreaded at different points. And this is absolute normal behaviour all over the country. Especially in the country side. I somehow miss that time. It was so normal to us that we never questioned it. In my youth, I did everything by bike. Like EVERYTHING. We had no sport apps with GPS or something (2004 - 2011), but between the age of 15 to 17 I rode about 150 - 200 km per week, (100 - 140 miles) only for my daily routines (school, friends, sports, ... ) I lived in the valley. School also was in the valley. But some stuff was on the other side of a +200m (600 feet) hill. I was damn fit! And I only had a 500€ cross bike. So fit, that one afternoon, when I had to cross that damn 200m hill again, I could keep up with a training group of amateur road cyclists. My bike weight 12kg and I had no clipless pedals or anything. Cycling is great. Today I am a road cyclist to (just as a hobby) and I cycle around 300 km (200 miles) a week. The US as such great landscapes. You should all go cycling xD These are my two cents. Bye xD

[@danteandries4996]

i mean biking to school in rain snow and bad weather is normal it builds tolerence making lunch isn't a problem although walking alone to kindergarden at 5 thats really young

[@Goose22jh]

I made my own lunch at 6 or 5...

[@useridcn]

I've seen a kid get pulled into a car while walking alone in a "safe" neighborhood... The context is different. It is unsafe in the US. You can't risk it.

[@lullaby218]

The US needs more gated communities fr.

[@lullaby218]

My mother wouldn't let me ride my bike to the neighbour village at the age of 14. It's depressing to even say that. She is nutters.

[@juliebrown4087]

I am 32. From preschool through second grade my mom used to walk us to school, and after that we walked alone, everywhere . Honestly, those memories of walking are some of my most prominent from childhood and some of my dearest as well. My mom has a disability that prevented her from being able to drive, but I consider myself lucky. In addition to obviously teaching independence, it created a love of walking. To this day walking is one of my favorite leisure and travel activities.

[@victoriameyers5870]

walking is part of how humans develop their minds. It's crazy how kids are treated today.

[@DidiTheCoolio]

well i cant walk to my school because it would take like 3 hours to get there

[@rogergeyer9851]

Julie Brown: And something like that seems like a rational approach. Plenty of time to teach you (by example and direct explanation) how to walk safely, handle traffic, etc. And at some point, if the area you're in is reasonably safe, then letting the child handle it makes sense. Today we seem to be sadly lacking in rational thinking by far too many far too often. (And no, I'm NOT claiming every area is safe for walking, or especially for biking).

[@arteria.coronaria]

In Switzerland a cycling and a "crossing roads safely" course done by the local police at school is part of the curriculum. You first teach kindergarteners how to safely cross streets (basics such as wait, look, listen, walk, ect. or riding roundabouts as a bicycle). It is surprising to me that such courses do not seem to exist in the US/Canada. Hardly anyone here is driven to school, usually it is only done in case the child/teen can't walk due to injury/disability. interesting to know

[@ewstap9040]

The thing is, a lot of places in the US simply don’t have safe places to cross the road. To walk to my school I would have to cross 4 lane roads with no cross walks and walk on peoples lawns, since there’s very little sidewalks

[@arteria.coronaria]

@@ewstap9040 I come from a village where the population is so low that there's hardly sidewalks too, but you simply walk on the opposite side of the road to see them come, or on the outside of a curve if there's terrain. Is crossing someone's lawn such a big deal though? Because here nobody cares much. Also, isn't there many crossings on such giant roads? Or maybe tunnels for people to pass under/bridges to go over as is popular over high speed roads here

[@ewstap9040]

@@arteria.coronaria walking on peoples lawns isn’t bad, but since walking here isn’t that common, people will stare, or dogs will bark at you. There also isn’t any shade, since there’s not many trees and no tall buildings and I live in the southern US so in the summer it gets to 35c ish pretty easily, and the sun is pretty intense on top of that. Also near where I live there’s no cross walks for these roads. I’ve tried to walk somewhere before and I had to cross a 4 lane intersection by running in between lights, and on that same walk a stop light took so long to change I literally sat down on the grass to wait. There’s also the aspect of everything being far apart, the closest businesses to me in every direction is about a 15-25 minute walk in one direction, and my school is about an hour walk away. I’m pretty lucky on that part since there are residential places around me that are far more isolated

[@JaneNX01]

We had a class like this in my small US town in the 70s. But my kids definitely did not and when I asked them if they’d ever learned rules of the road or bike safety in school they looked at me like I was talking nonsense!

[@Mavhawk64]

I wish that were the case throughout the USA. I lived in the country, so the drive to my middle school was nearly 10 miles, and in the winter, the weather would get really poor, making it impossible to travel by bike or foot (frostbite is a serious issue). As an adult, I walk between 15min-20min per mile, so that would be 2hr30min-3hr20min walk. Imagine if that were a child doing it... at 6am... in the cold... across highways... Sometimes, it just isn't feasible for students to walk, but I think that there can be better solutions, such as the 5min out drop-off, earlier drop-offs (why do parents think it is best to drop off their kids 5min before school starts?), or zoom classes.

[@Dewald]

In the late '90s, I ceased walking to school out of sheer frustration with the challenging weather conditions. Enduring freezing temperatures, freezing rain, and even contending with a minor flood had worn thin on my patience.

[@purplepancake58]

I think another contributes to people not biking to school is the people. I bike to school everyday with my little electric bike that has a throttle, and everyday I see people pulling it while destroying my tires. The problem doesn't just happen with me either. I've seen multiple instances of kids taking things off other peoples bikes like chains, those bell thingys and even the rubber off the handles. And the worst part is the school doesn't do anything.

[@rogergeyer9851]

PurplePancake: Yeah, I think for people caught red handed doing that sort of stuff, there should be public beatings (first offense -- escalating fines and prison sentences from there), quite frankly, which would fix the vast majority of it. But now, many places, stealing / damage under $500 and they do little if anything. It's pathetic.

[@justz00t48]

Bunch of savages! Back in my day you would just steal the whole bike and toss it in a river when you were done with it.

[@s35flyer]

Electric throttle, yeah just like the good ole days

[@kittygumdrop7442]

When my kid was in 1st to 2nd grade, I would walk her to school while pushing my youngest in a stroller. It was about 1 mile so not that far. However, I'd have other moms comment from their car or if they saw me in a store. They were surprised by my "dedication" to do it. We were literally walking past them 1/4 mile from school as they sat in their cars waiting to get to the drop-off point. My daughter and I would listen to a Zombies Run mission and time our walk to see if we could get faster. It was fun. She hated driving in peak winter (it was too dark) because she said walking helped her wake up and have more focus.

[@ScooterinAB]

"She hated driving in peak winter (it was too dark) because she said walking helped her wake up and have more focus." That's a great point. Kids are too often getting to school half asleep, only to the spent most of the day sitting in a desk in kid-jail. I can totally see how walking in the morning can get a kid ready for the day and maybe burn off a little anxious energy.

[@useridcn]

You are lucky to be in a walkable neighborhood

[@kittygumdrop7442]

@@useridcn I've lived in better and I've lived in worse areas. Nowadays I'd be nervous to walk around some places that I use to walk by myself years ago. It's a shame a lot of kids aren't able to safely walk to school. Whether it's a lack of sidewalks or sketchy people, there are definitely some difficult obstacles for some areas.

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

Yeah the economics issue is pretty big too. A big part of kids walking to school is usually being walked to school with their parents or older siblings first. If the parent's don't have the time to do it for the first few years, the kid won't learn to do it themself by 1st or 2nd grade.

[@ihintrr]

Lowkey grateful that my parents let me walk/transit the hour to school, yeah it builds character. I lost 60 pounds partly because of it. I've seen the most beautiful sunsets/rises because of it. It's given me hope at my lowest points, i was revently having some crazy exams, and since nobody but cars get on the path, I had a good cry in the -40c weather and aced my finals. In addition I've started, deepend and ended friendships on the journey. I know what I want in life and what I must do. The special characters on the train are my motivators. I've been doing it since 11. And even beforehand when I lived walking distance to school.

[@yalewang5922]

I went to one of the schools in your video, and used to bike there as well. Bike theft is so common in Vancouver and the cops do nothing about it. As a high school student I couldn't afford to lose a bike, so I hauled a heavy duty u-lock in my bag and checked on my bike from time to time after class, which was a big inconvenience.

[@MissMoontree]

Schools can have designated bike parking and having a horseshoe lock on a bike helps a lot. Larger locks can be put in bikebags, easy to pull them out and back in.

[@Amir-jn5mo]

I think designated bike parking is much easier to do for schools than anywhere else. I agree that bike theft is one of the biggest deterents to cycling but public schools can easy manage this one with good parking.

[@kailahmann1823]

I recently saw a survey, how different German cities fare for biking - "bike theft" is a very ironic but accurate indicator for how much people bike in a city. Stealing a bike in Phoenix or Houston or Lüdenscheidt (worst result here) is difficult, because there aren't any.

[@TheTrollMastah]

When I was a freshman, my friend and I rode our bikes to school for the first half of the year. He got THREE bikes stolen in the span of 2 months. In December of that year, I had the bright idea to loosen the chain and bolts that held the wheel in. He was always working on bikes so it was easy to just tighten everything before we left home. They would NEVER let us just take the stupid things inside but whatever.. so, to make a long story short, we got out of school one day right before winter break and saw a kid riding my friend’s bike down the hill. The kid cut in front of a truck when the chain snapped, knocking him over and the truck ran him right over. We just kinda walked by as everyone was freaking out and went home. I have no idea who that kid was, as he was older than us and we never knew what happened to him. Also my friend never got his bike back, we never said anything about it. Well, now you guys know.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

Bike theft is pretty common in Europe as well where bikes are used a lot. But in Europe where bikes are used for transportation, people ride generally relatively inexpensive road models. I recall in my 1.5 years in Cambridge UK I had two bikes stolen. Both of which I bought for 20 pounds each. I suspect they could well been stolen when I bought them as well, so I was not too sad seeing them go.

[@Kottery]

My schools (large campus with pre-K to 12th grade) were across the street from where I lived. It would have been a maybe five to ten minute walk. However the school would not allow ANYONE to walk to or from school and if you were caught doing so you were punished. According to them as long as you are on your way to or from school your safety is considered their responsibility so you had to come via bus, parent drop-off/pick-up, or drive yourself.

[@paveladamek3502]

That is f*ing insane.

[@VividPastels]

wth ive never heard of such a thing. the moment classes are over and you walk out its your problem

[@dragondancer1814]

Without a doubt, that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!

[@botwenty]

So by that logic, if a kid is being driven to/from school by their parent and they get in a car accident, the school is held liable? Wut?

[@kmbbmj5857]

They used a similar logic around here not to provide buses. School system wanted to push the cost and liability onto the parents.

[@fraulauzon6949]

As a baby boomer in the U.S., I'm of the generation that personally experienced walking to school myself as a child and lamented, not feeling it was safe enough to let my own children do the same. I walked about 2 1/2 blocks to Kindergarten, including a busy intersection. There is another cultural point this video missed. When I was a child, the vast majority of mothers did not work. This meant that on the route to school, mothers and grandmothers were in the houses along the way. Nowadays, those houses are empty since the majority of women now work. In addition, since kids and neighborhood women used to be out and about, we knew more of each other, so it felt like a safer, less strange community. Furthermore, people were not afraid to step in and get involved. You could count on a neighborhood Mom to yell at you if you were causing trouble! So if I felt afraid in a given situation, I knew I could shout or scream, and my cries would be heard. Today, not only are the chances remote that someone is home, but also, people are much less likely to get involved, for fear of liability. Imagine the scenario of a child taking public transportation. I feel quite certain that in the 60s, a stranger would much more likely step into help or defend a child in apparent trouble or danger. As a child, I could go up to the door of a house in town with the good possibility that a Mom would open the door and that I would know who she was. When I moved to another town in fourth grade, I walked about 2 miles to school. While still new, one day, I became confused about the route home and lost my way. I remember standing in the street crying, and a woman came out of a house to help me. Though I didn't know her, she turned out to be the mother of a classmate. She brought me into her house, calmed me down, and called my Mom. All of this, sadly, would be unheard of today. What saddens me the most is the lack of independence for children in American culture nowadays. I'll add one final anecdote: I'm a high school teacher of German. For years, our school participated in a 2 week homestay exchange with a school in Germany. The difference in the amount of independence for teens - and in the number of students walking, biking, and taking public transportation in these two cultures - is staggering. For sure, I observed a greater sense of community in Germany, leading to a greater sense of safety for children out and about. People are much more likely to step in in public situations. The litigious nature of American society is another cultural factor in the lack of independence of school-aged children in this country.

[@okaycola2]

Thanks for sharing your experiences

[@witchqueen8576]

Wow truly a boomer, its all about you. So glad you could regale us with your experiences because it must be everyone's experience .

[@paladan4597]

who hurt you witchqueen

[@ZhovtoBlakytniy]

I lived in US and Europe and it is very different, indeed. I lived in Western Ukraine, Carpathian Poland, and Western Norway they have high trust societies. I have been in both rural and urban settings and in both children roam freer than in the US (aside from maybe American suburbs where you can often see kids on bikes or walking a lot). European cities and towns are incredibly pedestrian friendly. And on the thing about people being home less often today than yesteryear, I think such problems are being solved with doorbell cameras. If you have a doorbell camera like Ring, you can communicate with a person on the porch even if you're not home. So, if a child runs to the door and rings the doorbell, you can assist remotely. Not the same, but it can still be a decent stand-in

[@Cloverkitty]

A large part of that is because the US is absolute shite at building the walkable cities we very much desire unlike our friends across the pond. Everywhere is stroads damn near where I currently live in TX, and if it's not stroads, then it's a long, winding empty back road of farmland. It's fucking awful and I cringe watching the high schoolers that walk home near my house because people will come FLYING down the road around a blind corner just down the road from our house. We've had many a mailbox lost to this and I just know some day I'm gonna hear or see the absolute worst possible thing happen to one of them or any of the newer young families that have moved in. Can't even let their kids trick or treat on foot in our neighborhood cause people treat it like a goddamn raceway. It's been like this since I was a kid (30 now). We gotta push our government and city planners for change!

[@AL-mc2um]

I grew up in Newark, NJ walking and taking public transport to school from the age of 12. This was in the 2000s after 9/11. I learned to read bus and subway schedules and I also had to drop my younger cousins at daycare in my teens. It was great for teaching me how to plan my day. Today, i live in a completely different state and we don't have sidewalks that go outside of my neighborhood. We have to drive everywhere. The Highschoolers walk, but the elementary school has a dedicated car line.

[@Aardappelpurree]

As for the Netherlands (I'm a Dutchy so I feel like I can elaborate a bit), we grew up in a walking and bicycle culture. I feel like behavioral change is also very linked to it's culture. That might be more dificult to change than we think. Until I was 8 year old, I think my mother dropped me off at elementary school or we would bicycle together. After that age, she told me I could go alone (I grew up in a relatively safe village, but maybe in city life similar rules are made). Once I went to high school, I took a 10 minute bicycle ride to the station, took the train to the city, a small walk and went to school there (I did a pre-professional dance training programme). Now that I'm 27 years old, I still don't have a car. I had one, but living in a city and the costs associated with owning a vehicle, it made more sense for me to sell it. I can still walk or bike most distances, or I'll take a tram/metro when I don't feel like doing those two things.

[@hondenboekjes5491]

You’ll own nothing and be happy

[@DiorDexico]

@@hondenboekjes5491you could own everything and still be miserable

[@questioner1596]

​@@hondenboekjes5491 not paying for a car frees money for owning other things like a cargo bike.

[@Stephanthecuteblondie2567]

@@damonmelendez856 Ah yes, causal racism, lovely

[@zerologic7912]

@@damonmelendez856 Fuck, I can't tell whether this comment is in favor of diversity or segregation. Feels more like the latter if I'm honest

[@10538overture]

I was born in mid 6os, and we always used to walk to school (about three quarters of a mile). I used to spend much of my free time playing in the local woods. It seems very unhealthy to me to expect terrible things to happen all the time. Being aware of risk is a good thing, but catastrophising is truly harmful.

[@misspat7555]

I was surprised smaller family size wasn’t addressed here. As far as I can tell, parents were just forced to care less about each individual kid when they had 5 or 6 than when they now have 1 or 2. Kids used to play outside all day every day during the summer, going to who-knows-where, probably dangerous places they weren’t actually allowed to go. Parents just couldn’t get as worked up about that as they do now with littler ones to care for/older ones to get started in adult life! 🤷‍♀️

[@tzuccolo2001]

I love this guy so much. He asks every question I've been asking. Just a note on the reason why, I think you can blame the missing kids on the milk box cartons in the 70s and 80s. There was an intense fear-mongering campaign around it.

[@kaddissventorum4149]

My reasoning is American ghettos. They WILL SHOOT YOU. ( ffs we had a shoot out in Oakland PGH not too long ago) so um... yeah.

[@kaddissventorum4149]

I also was at school during the November 5th fort hood shootings. I grew up with active shootrt drills. I mean sheesh I've been in cities of 300 thousand on lockdown.

[@honestfriend767]

It wasn’t fear mongering it is was a warning. The solution is to walk your kids to school yourself so they don’t walk alone this world is too dangerous. Save gas, you get a work out in too. You spend more quality time with your kids on the way too school and back.

[@tzuccolo2001]

@@honestfriend767 and we have a generation of kids who spend their childhood without any personal freedom. If we go more than three blocks from their house, my nephews become disoriented. It's something that was very deliberately socially engineered, like everything else in our lives.

[@parisknight1840]

⁠@@honestfriend767no it was fear mongering. Most people will experience abuse with people related to them (most times parents) and people close to them. Most people don’t get raped by some rando on the street ina decent neighborhood. A kid is more likely to die and get hurt in a car with a parent going to school than getting kidnapped by walking home. This whole campaign started in the 70s-80s as a response to changing beliefs that resulted after the sexual revolution and civil rights movement. People hated that the nuclear family was being “threatened” by the scary idea of other marginalized groups having rights and changing perception of how we terribly treat children so people doubled down. This whole thing was always about fear of children having rights, sex being more free, and the breaking down of oppressive traditional norms and resulted in a fear campaign. Mind you the satanic child abuse panic started because of schizophrenia woman pressuring her child to lie about abuse that didn’t happen.

[@thedean489]

Thank you for bringing attention to this!! I live on the same street as a high school and every day from 3:30-4:00 traffic is stopped for miles. It also caused problems for me when I was a student. I grew up in a rural community without a school within walking distance and had to drive and the traffic from students who didn’t need to drive made me late to class several times a day

[@AntonOlfert]

It's unfortunate that you don't mention potential legal repercussions of 'leaving a child unsupervised', or 'parent neglect', or schools requiring an adult escort for elementary students in Canada. We live in Vancouver within walking distance from school and do walk our kid to school, but won't let her go alone until she is 12 to avoid dealing with social services.

[@Carkebe]

Sounds like paranoia. Tons of elementary school children walk to school. I live next to a school here in Ontario and I see kids that can't be older than Gr.1-2 walking alone. If there's no issues at home, social services doesn't have a leg to stand on. Fact: It's ok to let your child walk to school. Fiction: Gov't services are going to take your child away if you let them walk to school.

[@zekume]

@@Carkebe Well, and this is a little unrelated, but there was a family that got their kids taken away because one of the punishments for the child (who was bullying another student) was to jog to school for a week. Granted there were other factors such as having rain sometime during the week, but the father was rolling behind in the car to make sure he was safe. When word got out after they posted it on Facebook, CPS came. I'm not saying it isn't a little unrealistic, but CPS takes action at the dumbest and worst of times so it's not unreasonable to think it won't happen randomly. Edit: I live in the U.S. Southern states usually have this issue.

[@cosi4683]

​@@zekumeThere's a difference between letting your kid walk to school for the sake of walking, getting fresh air, exercise and gaining independence. Forcing your kid to run to school as punishment is just dumb and punitive and pedagogical illogical. It's not a real and direct consequence of bullying. CPS made the right call!

[@dudeski6548]

@@cosi4683 dude the kid got exercise, he was being watched and its not even that bad of a punishment

[@kmbbmj5857]

@@cosi4683 You just kind of proved the point. Most reasonable people think CPS out to stay out of simple things like that. You think they made the right call. That's exactly the attitude that scares parents about CPS.

[@MrNicePotato]

This is still so crazy to me. In the part of the world I live in, public transport is so good nobody is driven to school. In the rare occasion where someone shows up in a car, that kid would be seen as the rich kid. Even if someone actually lives far away and would be convenient for the parent to drop them off on their way to work, they would still prefer to be dropped farther from the school so that fewer schoolmates would catch them going by car and they can actually walk to school with friends for some little time to hang out.

[@christinewalker7242]

Lucky. Where I lived when I was school aged was 20km away from school and 10km away from public transport. That being said, my parents payed extra on mine and my sister's school fees so that the school bus could take us and we had to walk the 500 meters to the stop together.

[@497Dante]

I remember reading about 20 years ago, some kind of school board committee decided to increase the distance requirement from their home to school to be qualified to ride a school bus. I think it is either five or three miles long so the school system can save some money. In other words, it forced many children to take “alternative transportation” that included their parents’ car and walking.

[@ML-yn9yu]

huh? in my state , I definitely seen the opposite- I had to walk about alittle over a mile to school in late 90s early 00s now I see kinds who live less than a half a mile getting picked up by a bus.

[@eburki1008]

Yes, I live within a three mile radius of my school, but that's as the crow flies. For me to walk to school it is about 5 km and about an hour 45 to get home safely or about a 30-40 minute bike ride. If I lived outside that radius or outside city limits, I would be eligible for bus transportation.

[@floormatt3]

Isn't it wild? The class MBA mindset of minimizing costs and outsourcing public initiatives to private pay (in this case, removing bus options promoting parents to instead drive on their own dime, saving costs to the operation by promoting austerity) just doesn't work for 95% of services. Education, healthcare, transit, should never face austerity.

[@Ghryst]

@@eburki1008 ProTip: 5km IS 3miles. your argument is invalid.

[@signespencer6887]

People can’t carpool due to car seat requirements. Also, if you ride the bus you can’t participate in after-school activities. And, in many communities, letting your child walk unescorted means that you will be investigated by CPS and perhaps lose custody. This is the case even if the child only lives a couple of blocks away and there are sidewalks.

[@badbirb5698]

Really appreciate how your two graphs show the same Death per 1m, and the years on the bottom are the same per graph. Lets you directly compare where the lines are to punch home the point. Chefs kiss

[@SlightlyAlive.]

a friend of my aunt moved to the states where lived just a couple hundred meters away from her kids school. her kids were not allowed to walk to their school, because kids had to be dropped of and picked up by either car or bus. it just seems so insane that children arent considered to be safe enough to walk 200 meters or so by themselves, or even acompanied by an adult, because of the infrastructure being so pro car or even anti people

[@eligebrown8998]

Theres a video where the mom sued the school over that and won. She even got arrested once for walking her kids to school and sued the police department

[@theblueraven764]

It has gone way too far I agree.

[@monkegaming6416]

nice profile picture

[@useridcn]

No neighborhood is totally safe in the US. Schools don't want parents to have any chance to sue them if their kids get kidnapped on their way to school.

[@SlightlyAlive.]

@@useridcn yeah thats so fucked up

[@paulmryglod4802]

As a parent, the difference between my school days and my kids is noticeable. Cutting budgets resulting in bus times of over 1 hr to go 4 miles is a primary reason.

[@Mojogoblue]

This! My kid is on a bus for 35 minutes both before and after school. Fortunately, he actually likes being on the bus, so he’s on it most days, but frankly, I can drive him in 10-12 minutes, including time spent idling in the drop-off line (and we can get 20 more minutes of sleep that way, too).

[@AJ-ju6xi]

Why does your kid live 4 miles to the closest school is the first question

[@paulmryglod4802]

@@AJ-ju6xi rural NC

[@paulmryglod4802]

@AJ-ju6xi I lived 8 miles from our central school in upstate ny and my bus was just 10 kids out my way and then straight to school. They make sure busses are nearly full as a priority instead of transportation times for children now. Budget cuts.

[@jalapeno1119]

​@@AJ-ju6xi What, like that's far?

[@MegaFluffyBunny]

One thing I'm surprised wasn't mentioned in this video is the fact that school starts as early as 7:00 a.m. or even earlier sometimes, and one who wants to wake up that early to give yourself enough time to walk, but two, for a good chunk of the year it's dark at that time which just adds to the danger aspect.

[@squodge]

Not sure how the dark is a problem. I walked to school when I was 8 (with my sister who was 9). By the time I went to secondary school, I got the bus as the school was further away - but when the weather was nice, I'd walk home (45 min walk). This was in the 80s and 90s. There's something wrong with society now - everyone is anxious about the slightest thing.

[@tbird8964]

@@squodge darkness increases the chance of getting hit as a pedestrian, especially if you are a small kid that isn’t wearing something bright.

[@cosi4683]

​@@tbird8964that's why in Germany the special school back packs have reflectors on the sides and back. And jackets usually do too.

[@joyfulgirl91]

@@squodge I wouldn’t be anxious about it, it just sounds miserable and enduring misery when it offers no tangible benefit and you have the power to remove it feels crazy. Walking to school in the morning isn’t the one and only way to give kids freedom

[@Z-FishInMyBreakfast]

I go to school at 1 pm lol

[@ruthp.2242]

This video is sooo relatable. Especially as a 15 year old with very protective parents. They were blessed to have productive negligent parents that let them do dangerous things carefully and that helped them develop and learn from experience. But when it came to them parenting, they won’t let me go to the local library with a friend to study. It’s suffocating and I fell like a rapunzul. As a culture, we shelter too much. Drifting away from each other and community. People had to have ads to remind them to check on their kids. Now being a teen is like being a prisoner in a high security jail.

[@pandabytes4991]

I think another factor that could influence parents decisions to drive their students is the internet. In previous decades, if something unsettling happens, you had to wait for it to make it to your local newspaper or tv station. Now days, when something like a shooting or an abduction happens, it can easily be all over the news within minutes of authorities being notified, and a lot of times you don't even have to be within spitting distance to hear about events. I think this new trend helps play a part in convincing parents that they need to be even more protective of their children.

[@peppermeat8059]

Yeah! thats actually true, whenever i want to do something that is totally ok and possible to do my parents just say an excuse that "a kid got kidnapped while walking somewhere" im so restricted to where nothing is fun anymore

[@Kaiserboo1871]

@@peppermeat8059 It’s not hard to see why. No parent wants to hear that their child’s been kidnapped. And unfortunately, kidnapping a child is really easy to do. And usually, those kids are never found and if they are found… they don’t come back entirely unscathed if you know what I mean. Why take the risk when the risk can be completely and totally averted by driving yours kids to school instead of having them walk alone?

[@RosesAndIvy]

@@Kaiserboo1871 Because the risk is very very small. The idea of stranger danger is way overblown and was mostly caused by media outrage in the 80s and 90s. Kids are much more likely to be abducted or kidnapped by someone they know than by a stranger. You have to do a cost-benefit analysis in these cases. Sure you could drive your kid to school all the time but that has all the downsides that this video talks about. We don't eliminate all risk in other aspects of life either even if we can, because it's often just not worth it.

[@blacky_Ninja]

@@Kaiserboo1871 Cause those kidnappings aren‘t actually that often as the internet makes you think and you‘re robbing your children of their independance and freedom.

[@IdOnThAvEaUsE69]

@@Kaiserboo1871 Yeah, after all... "Better safe than sorry", ey?

[@diablow1411]

I'm from Pakistan and the story's quite similar when it comes to metropolitan cities. You'd see many private schools propped up at every corner of the street, each with having quite a few students and their parents dropping them off in cars, causing the sufficiently wide roads to be jammed during certain hours! Now because I drove to college back then, at a point, I deliberately hung around there and either studied or chilled with friends just to make sure those certain "school hours" have passed by so I don't get stuck in the traffic.

[@heartsmyfaceforever8140]

Can we talk about how kids can’t get into their own school districts because of poor social planning and have to win lotteries to enter a school within their district? Many kids have to go miles out of their way to get to school and it’s in a mountainous region.

[@DrunkenUFOPilot]

When I went to high school, 1970's, all the kids in my neighborhood got on the bus, whooshed past Central High only two miles away, and continued on to Western High about six miles away. I always thought that was weird, but ... districts!

[@StevenAcunaBG05]

I graduated HS in 2013. I walked to school most of the time. It was about 2 miles and it was the best part of my day

[@ifmimow]

Thank you THANK YOU for featuring this topic. I wonder every single weekday about this. I bring it up with others in conversation. The lines of cars at the schools is incredible. I can't imagine dealing with that, taking your kid to and from school is like a part time job! I just found your channel a few minutes ago and going thru the list I was really liking the different topics you cover, then found this story. Passing it on to others immediately. I've subscribed

[@gingermany6223]

This is a big problem in my area, especially since the pandemic. My kids bike to school but some days they are the ONLY ones in a school of 800 students. There has also been three incidents of other parents bringing my kids home because they found them out "unsupervised". Crazy times.

[@bettyspot]

Wtffff unsupervised!?

[@MrZoomah]

Yep. My 9yo niece has the police called on her for being unsupervised. She was riding her bike around town. Police were not happy ... With the caller.

[@danieldaniels7571]

This really shows that the problem is primarily a sad shift in society and culture, and not suburban design. I walked and rode my bike to school and many other places in suburbia throughout the '70s & '80s.

[@danieldaniels7571]

@@Another-Address yep. And it seems the 1980s latch-key kids were much better prepared for adulthood than the last couple generations.

[@Amir-jn5mo]

this is the major issue here.

[@jbay088]

Obligatory mention of Japan, where kids not only walk more than 1 mile to school without their parents, but even take the train longer distances, at ages as young as 6 years old.

[@urbanizeddreams]

Yeah true, but it's also the same reason they have the dark issues of 12 year old girls selling themselves to businessman after school....so Japan isn't all that great....they just like to show themselves as a country without problems, when in reality there society has a lot of them.

[@jbay088]

@@urbanizeddreams Every society has problems. Walkable neighbourhoods and childhood independence is not the reason for that, nor are cars the cure.

[@urbanizeddreams]

Very true, I agree.

[@backnine1542]

@@urbanizeddreams This is always how you know someone only knows of Japan based on what they see on the internet and “animes”. Saying Japan has those issues is the equivalent of saying America and Europe has a religious p3d0 issues.

[@OfTheGaps]

@@backnine1542 I don't know about Europe, but America _definitely_ has a religious p3d0 issue. That's why all the right-wing religious nuts are disingenuously trying to label members of the trans community as p3d0s, so they can draw attention away from themselves. As for Japan, even in car-infested Okinawa, you still see lots of kids walking to school, by themselves or in small packs. So it must be at least partially cultural. And the more people you have out walking, the safer it is for each individual walker.

[@JeffWittyArt]

I remember going to school in the 80s. There was a perception (true or not) that only the rich/cool kids got driven to school. I grew up walking, then cycling to school until about 7th grade. Then I rode the bus. I have a suspicion that a lotta parents drive their kids because they (maybe subconsciously) want to convey an element of family wealth on their kid’s behalf. My 10 year old busses to school - primarily due to my conflicting work schedule, not our wealth.

[@champgnesuprnva]

I think another major consideration for American parents is children's sleep. Many school districts have their Middle and High schools starting between 6:50-7:30am to accommodate parents commutes and after school activities. If your child walks or takes the bus, they are waking up at 6-6:30am or earlier every day in order to leave the house in time (I took the bus and would wake up at 5:45am). If driving your child directly to school on your way to work means they can sleep in another 45 minutes, it makes sense to drive them. Luckily, some parents have been pushing school districts to start at more reasonable times in the last few years, but it's nowhere near universal, and many parents still prefer early start times and actively fight school boards when change is proposed.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

Well, schools fulfill roles of child care in North America, so they have to align themselves with parents working hours. For instance, in my childhood school day went up to 6-7 hours only in high school. In elementary school we had max 4 lessons (45 min + break) per day, and we started at 8.15 and were done with school by 12,30 or so. Then around grade 4 it became 5 lessons, and later 6 as a norm, with occasional 7. Bu I was out of school by 2.30 pm on most of the days in high school as well.

[@AnotherDuck]

Honestly, we normally go to bed too late. If you start sleeping early enough, waking at six or even five in the morning isn't an issue.

[@sunsetanimator4187]

Yeah for year 11 and 12 for my Highschool, school started at 7:25 so you had to get ready much earlier than before (Original for year 10 - 7 was 8:35 no before school care in Highschool) and kids were ruining their attendance because of the 1 hour difference in schedule especially when paired with working after school (for me it was 9 hour days because of where I lived, got up at 6am got ready quickly and would be home by 3pm there were kids with difficult living situations because of the distance school was from home.

[@oscarosullivan4513]

In Ireland primary school and secondary school start later than that

[@kaekae4010]

In my country children are taught to go to school alone (accompanied by others neighbor's children), how to take public transport if they live a little far away. And it is an obligation of the parents to teach them to do it. I already went to school by myself when I was less than 10 years old. It is an important step in educating children to be independent and responsible for each other. (Obviously here there is absolute respect for pedestrians, good and friendly infrastructure, and it has quality public transport, and transport passes for children etc.)

[@tomdfrog]

I grew up in a medium town in the 70's and 80's. Walked and biked EVERYWHERE. I walked a mile to school...alone! It was afternoon kindergarten. I knew all the houses along the way where I could go for help. I would cut through some woods (even though I was not supposed to). It taught me so much! Gave all of us great confidence and observation skills. Looking back, I imagine, mom alerted other moms along the route and there were always someone on the look out. Nowadays, where I live, I could not imagine doing that. First off, sidewalks are rare. As are bike lanes and bike paths (not that we had them back in my day). Communities are just not built to be kid friendly. And then...there are the Karens. The meddlesome %^&*()es who MUST stick their nose into other peoples lives and actions. Not too long ago, a family was reported to CPS because they let their child walk home from the playground.

[@sootuckchoong7077]

I was driven to school in first year of school. Later i took the bus, then i started walking, i think its 3 miles from home, then back again. And i walked fast, because i liked to be fast! Only from 5th year, i started cycling. It really helped my energy and health.

[@zerologic7912]

It's worth noting that the reason communities are built this way nowadays (especially in the suburbs) is almost entirely the fault of lobbying by the automobile industry. Car culture is the cause of so many problems in America that I can't even begin to count.

[@tomdfrog]

@@zerologic7912 Car culture started it. The lack of requirements by local governments for neighborhood construction and unwillingness of folks to pay taxes to maintain them are also another HUGE factor.

[@sootuckchoong7077]

@@tomdfrog Nowadays, having so many high traffic and highways, parents are forced to drive or have a private bus to take the children to school.

[@g.t.richardson6311]

Same here , thru 6th grade, we even walked home for lunch, so for trips a day It wasnt a mile, but it was close. Middle school and high school. I walked two but we stayed for lunch so only two trips a day. Rode bikes everywhere.

[@frischfrosch420]

My old house by my high school used to be within a 10 minute walk to my school. Behind the backyards of the neighborhood was a path that led right to the school. So many kids in my neighborhood walked this path every day to get to school, it was so convenient. One day the school put up a barbed wire fence during the school day without notifying anyone, students, parents, or staff. I had to jump that barbed wire fence to get home as my parents couldn’t pick me up. It was so ridiculous and I was so mad that they took away my favorite way to get to school. After that my parents had to figure out ways to drive me to school and deal with all the massive traffic that comes from school’s letting out. It honestly solidified my hate for car dependent infrastructure!

[@FreekHoekstra]

Fantastic report, I have been happily living in Canada for a long time , but me and my wife are now actually considering moving back to the Netherlands, Because we want our children to be able to be independent , cycle to school, Roam outside unsupervised, without us getting persecuted for it. And yes, the risks are actually very low , at least in most places. I really hope this problem gets addressed everywhere .

[@nancyneyedly4587]

You just have to find the appropriate community. Where I live in Canada most kids walk, bike or take a public bus to school. It's safe and many kids wander around the neighbourhood playing or going to parks. Remember that "Canada" is a large country with huge differences from coast to coast and even within the same province.

[@Togher01]

@@nancyneyedly4587 You are right you can find the right community. There is a cost finding the right community. The good community that provide for these services are fair more expenisve.

[@robinhood5529]

Can i come with you to Netherlands?

[@corail53]

You can do that now - in Canada you know. Don't let the media and paranoid busybodies say otherwise - they are the minority.

[@pbilk]

There are places that are better like Montreal, parts of Ottawa, GTHA, and Kitchener-Waterloo. However, I wish I could easily move to the Netherlands. My grandparents and my wife's Opa and Oma moved here but none of our parents or Aunts and Uncles claimed with Dutch citizenship by a certain age.

[@BologneyT]

Daughter's a champ. Had to be in all these scenes of sad walks through dangerous places and all these other modes of transport and get to school all these ways and was so stoic through it all, even though her name would never even be in the credits so she would never be credited for her acting skills and dedication to getting to school.

[@LiveFreeOrDieDH]

The queen of b-roll!

[@averyajyt]

i wish i were her. beautiful thin asian with a great father

[@Rattle.to.tattle]

@@averyajytbro shes like 7

[@confessor3380]

​​@@averyajyt bro? that's oddly specific

[@dolliquette]

@@averyajyt bro chill 😭

[@TheSuzberry]

In the mid-1970’s my 6-yo daughter took the metro to school. I rode with her to my stop and she rode alone to her stop. She is an amazing woman and dedicated helicopter mom. Who knew?

[@HaggardPillockHD]

As a Londoner who walked to school in the late 90s/early 00s, I can say that it was genuinely risky. I got mugged at knifepoint and on a separate occasion my brother did too. I think it depends on the area and the character of the streets you're walking through.

[@erictaylor5462]

My school was only 1 mile from my home, so I had to walk. But I'm also an amputee, and I used to joke that for me it's twice as far because I'm missing a leg, then I found out that a below knee amputee uses 4 times the energy to walk than a person with 2 healthy legs. So really my 1 mile walk to school was like a 4 mile walk.

[@Kazinga123]

wowza😮

[@johnnevada46]

I was brought up in Vancouver (Burnaby) but moved to London in 1970 when I was ten. While I had walked to school in Vancouver, I was amazed to discover how independent London kids were. They walked to school, cycled to school, and got on buses and trains. Hardly any children were driven to school and those who were driven would insist that their parents drop them off a long way from the school so that nobody would see that there were 'soft'. On the weekends, we would meet up and get the tube down to Central London or a train way out into the countryside for a long ramble in the fields. Compared to Canada, working-class English children were far more independent and self-confident.

[@canuck21]

I grew up in Montreal in the 1980s and I walked to school and most of the neighbourhood kids did the same.

[@namedrop721]

So you were brought up in a rich area and you’re comparing it to a poor area? That sounds like bad science.

[@johnnevada46]

​@@namedrop721 WTF are you on about?

[@mirzaahmed6589]

@@namedrop721 working-class does not mean poor.

[@westworld237]

I grew up in London in the 2000s and it was the same for me then lol. ..it’s also the same now but some things have changed. In fact, recently my dad told my little sister (10) that she can start walking/talking the bus by herself when the sun start setting later in the day (the sun currently sets at 4 lol). I wouldn’t let a child take the tube by themself though, only when they start secondary school. Also, there are definitely way more parents dropping their children off on their way to work!!

[@CityasNature]

You continue to make videos that we have wished would be made for the past decade! Thanks for the thorough, humorous, and sane analysis of what is going on with our cities, and what we can do to make them better for everyone. Keep being our hero 🙂

[@TobiasRieperGER]

I am from germany. We live in walk distance to the local schools. ~300m. Our daughter walks there. BUT we have several mothers, who bring their kids to school by SUV. Imo this is so ridiculous. One of them is smaller than 1,6m, drives a BMW X5. A Car that is 30cm higher than her head. When she is on the driver seat, she would fit a second time next to her in the seat. When i see her coming towards me while driving, i only see her eyes and forehead over the dash. It has to be impossible for her to see something in ftont of her car. She is so close to the wheel to reach the pedals, that the airbag could break her in half. That is not safe at all. I already told her that so many times, but BMW drivers are the biggest jerks on the road. I am waiting for it. One day she will overrun one of the other kids. I don't get it, why people drive cars, they don't fit in?

[@MostlyBuicks]

This is one of the reason I moved from a neighborhood with schools to one without schools. It took FOREVER to drive out of the former neighborhood when parents were dropping off kids. 30 minutes versus only 10 in the middle of the day.

[@TheOnlyKontrol]

I woke up at 6-6:30am took about a hour to get ready and met my friend for our daily walk at about 7-7:30am…after school I always played sports also so I either had a game or practice so after 3pm I had about another 2-3hours of being active before I even want for my walk back home around 5-6pm. Now thinking back on it I’m not even sure how I did that everyday…but I’m so happy that I did. It’s something I will always think back on and remember. It takes a certain amount of discipline that everyone growing up should experience. Walking to school definitely was something special.

[@rogergeyer9851]

alexpakha: And if you had regular home cooked meals, then overall, you were probably at least 10X healthier than today's largely inactive, junk food eating kids (not all but far too many), with 2 working parents and too little time for much real cooking, much less ensuring the kids get OUTSIDE and do physical play. For me, walking to/from school was SO MUCH better than the obnoxious types on the bus in high school, that no matter the weather I FAR preferred just walking. And I covered the roughly mile trip in the same time as the bus on average, given the route. Worst case, I got wet some days the forecast was way off. The main thing I wish is that decent book backpacks had been way more popular. That would have been an improvement when I had several tests (and therefore books to carry).

[@tayzonday]

You draw a lot of Canada-America cultural and behavioral conclusions from Canada. I feel like we colonized your SEO 😂

[@inund8]

BRO WTF, this is my third or fourth Tay siting in a month. We must have alot of shared subscriptions 🤷‍♂ EDIT: I need to know if you got here through recommendations or subscriptions pls

[@AboutHere]

I'm so honoured to have you comment on my video Tay! Way back in highschool I spent several weeks trying to learn the piano part to Chocolate Rain haha ☺. To your point, the statistics on this issue were disappointingly sparse for Canada so I borrowed a lot from the US - but if it means the video is more relevant to more viewers I'm all for it ;).

[@danieldaniels7571]

​@@inund8 I seem to run into Tay about 3 times a week. Long time fan of his music. It would appear we have a lot of common interests.

[@aantoine5819]

Chocolate rain

[@NotReallyAHero]

Ayo chocolate rain 🍫

[@BloodRoses_]

Yes through the rain and the snow 1:43 BIKING UP A DANG HILL IS EXHAUSTING AT 6 IN THE MORNING WITH SNOW ON THE GROUND AND MY FINGER STARTING TO NUMB- SCHOOLS ARE CRAZY AND I LIVE FAR But not that far because others are farther but STILL (1.6 MILES)