debka_notion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
debka_notion) wrote2005-11-07 05:51 pm
debka_notion) wrote2005-11-07 05:51 pm
Traffic
I drive by 4 or 5 schools on the way to work on Mondays and Wednesdays. And since I work at a Hebrew school, fairly naturally, I'm aiming to get there just before the kids do, and the kids usually go straight from their regular schools, most of which are pretty local. So I'm going by just as kids are getting out of school. Ok- so, it's likely to be busy- I can be pretty patient, so you'd think this would be no big deal. And generally, that's just how it goes. There's a little traffic, I wait, I get where I'm going.
Today, at one of those schools, there was traffic like I've never seen before. And there was Driving, if you can call it that, like I've never seen before. Several cars just started driving on the Wrong Side of the Road, in a no-passing area at that. Sure, they also horned in when there wasn't enough room to fit their cars in, causing big clog-ups because they were for a while pretty much keeping their cars across both lanes, but I thought the driving entirely on the wrong side of the road took the cake. And these are, presumably, parents, who understand the idea that children are small and hard to see from a driver's seat, and one should be Extra careful around schools.
On a crankier note: there were buses at this school, and a virtual swarm of cars. Now, elementary schools usually bus (at least in my hometown) kids who live any farther than a mile away. And kids who live almost a mile can, at least there (maybe it's different in this state, if someone wants to fill me in, I'm more than open to that) pay some minimal fee and walk to an existing bus stop and take the bus. The school doesn't seem to have a large handicapped population (and if this is not politically correct, I'm sorry)- so why can't the kids walk? If their parents can come to drive them home, why can't they come walk them home, at least stome of them? Can they All be coming straight from work? Maybe I'm just spoiled- Mom came and walked us home nearly every day for our entire elementary school education, large, heavy instruments (3 years with a trombone, the last of those with a trombone and a bassoon I think, unless the lovely sibling didn't start playing until the year after- my memory is a little fuzzy: it was part-way through a year, and I think it was the end of her 5th grade year) and all.
Today, at one of those schools, there was traffic like I've never seen before. And there was Driving, if you can call it that, like I've never seen before. Several cars just started driving on the Wrong Side of the Road, in a no-passing area at that. Sure, they also horned in when there wasn't enough room to fit their cars in, causing big clog-ups because they were for a while pretty much keeping their cars across both lanes, but I thought the driving entirely on the wrong side of the road took the cake. And these are, presumably, parents, who understand the idea that children are small and hard to see from a driver's seat, and one should be Extra careful around schools.
On a crankier note: there were buses at this school, and a virtual swarm of cars. Now, elementary schools usually bus (at least in my hometown) kids who live any farther than a mile away. And kids who live almost a mile can, at least there (maybe it's different in this state, if someone wants to fill me in, I'm more than open to that) pay some minimal fee and walk to an existing bus stop and take the bus. The school doesn't seem to have a large handicapped population (and if this is not politically correct, I'm sorry)- so why can't the kids walk? If their parents can come to drive them home, why can't they come walk them home, at least stome of them? Can they All be coming straight from work? Maybe I'm just spoiled- Mom came and walked us home nearly every day for our entire elementary school education, large, heavy instruments (3 years with a trombone, the last of those with a trombone and a bassoon I think, unless the lovely sibling didn't start playing until the year after- my memory is a little fuzzy: it was part-way through a year, and I think it was the end of her 5th grade year) and all.
no subject
Also, there's people who think that they're better off driving a mile than walking a mile, and that's with normal-person legs. (I don't understand that stance—maybe they think their children are cargo.) Walking would make even less sense with small-child legs, so the parents come and pick them up.
If I recall correctly, school is on a whacked time schedule as compared with the real world. I somewhat doubt they came straight from work to school to pick up the kids.
no subject
That's a stance that seems odd to me. But then, if they've done that all their lives, they probably don't have the stamina to walk for a mile. Which I think is sort of sad, barring health problems.
WEll, yes, although some folks work part-time, and might indeed be leaving work just in time to get their kids from school.
no subject
Yeah, I get the impression that a lot of people get brought up thinking that walking is more of a recreational activity rather than an actually useful thing people do to get from point A to point B. I'm always surprised when I go back home and see how slowly my parents tend to walk. (They grew up in and near Detroit. One drives there.)