In the 2000s my elementary-school step-son wasn’t allowed to walk, bike or skate to school. Also, they didn’t get to keep a locker. Fuck teaching personal responsibility! 6-yo children, bent double with giant backpacks. All they needed were coolie hats to complete the slave motiff. All in all just a nother brick in the wall.
The middle school I went to in the 90’s had bike racks. They were old and corroded, most were kinda shoved to the side. I never once saw a bike locked to them, and I got the feeling that you’d get in trouble if you did.
That school was about 60 years old, and was once the town high school, it was in amongst the residential side of town. They opened a new middle school out on commercial land back behind the Best Buy out on the stroad that’s only known by its US route number. They installed no bike racks there.
Yeah. Not to mention how much time, effort and money it takes for parents to shuttle kids around to create some semblance of social life. The more difficult it is, the fewer people do it. Growing up in commie blocks, it was impossible to go out the entrance and not bump into some kids playing. You’d go on the balcony and get yelled to come down by some kids outside. We walked alone to school since kindergarten. There were multitudes of small local stores to buy yourself a treat and share it with the other kids. Even the least attentive parents had their kids get socially functional by society. This sort of thing is possible in some places in North America but I think it’s the exception rather than the norm.
The primary entrance to both the high school and the rest of the neighborhood was appropriately named Funnel.
Getting out of the neighborhood was sometimes the longest part of my journey, and that was driving from the suburbs into downtown on a notoriously traffic ridden (and always under construction) freeway - they liked to close exits with little to no notice sometimes requiring massive rerouting. Was late a couple times because of that, but the traffic right at the start of the commute was the worst.
A combination of high schoolers who can’t drive, and half asleep parents who need more caffeine or less kids - probably both - as well as pedestrians and kids on bikes. I don’t know about your area, but cyclists in that area did not abide by traffic laws and no one stopped them, so they kept doing it. More than a few people died at that crossing in the ~5 years I lived there.
Thankfully, I usually only saw it bad on my way home in the morning (medical IT, I worked nights).
Covering some other shifts though? Whew, I had to leave at least 30 minutes earlier than I would for a night shift.
I used to go to school by bike with friends, nowadays there is car traffic congestion to drop off kids at school
In the 2000s my elementary-school step-son wasn’t allowed to walk, bike or skate to school. Also, they didn’t get to keep a locker. Fuck teaching personal responsibility! 6-yo children, bent double with giant backpacks. All they needed were coolie hats to complete the slave motiff. All in all just a nother brick in the wall.
Howany cases of scoliosis did that make. No really that nearly happned to my brothers when he wasin school. I was lucky and had lockers.
The middle school I went to in the 90’s had bike racks. They were old and corroded, most were kinda shoved to the side. I never once saw a bike locked to them, and I got the feeling that you’d get in trouble if you did.
That school was about 60 years old, and was once the town high school, it was in amongst the residential side of town. They opened a new middle school out on commercial land back behind the Best Buy out on the stroad that’s only known by its US route number. They installed no bike racks there.
Yeah. Not to mention how much time, effort and money it takes for parents to shuttle kids around to create some semblance of social life. The more difficult it is, the fewer people do it. Growing up in commie blocks, it was impossible to go out the entrance and not bump into some kids playing. You’d go on the balcony and get yelled to come down by some kids outside. We walked alone to school since kindergarten. There were multitudes of small local stores to buy yourself a treat and share it with the other kids. Even the least attentive parents had their kids get socially functional by society. This sort of thing is possible in some places in North America but I think it’s the exception rather than the norm.
I lived on the street next to a high school.
The primary entrance to both the high school and the rest of the neighborhood was appropriately named Funnel.
Getting out of the neighborhood was sometimes the longest part of my journey, and that was driving from the suburbs into downtown on a notoriously traffic ridden (and always under construction) freeway - they liked to close exits with little to no notice sometimes requiring massive rerouting. Was late a couple times because of that, but the traffic right at the start of the commute was the worst.
A combination of high schoolers who can’t drive, and half asleep parents who need more caffeine or less kids - probably both - as well as pedestrians and kids on bikes. I don’t know about your area, but cyclists in that area did not abide by traffic laws and no one stopped them, so they kept doing it. More than a few people died at that crossing in the ~5 years I lived there.
Thankfully, I usually only saw it bad on my way home in the morning (medical IT, I worked nights).
Covering some other shifts though? Whew, I had to leave at least 30 minutes earlier than I would for a night shift.