Hacker News Reader

Comment by Swizec | Hacker News Reader

> 1) Americans just in general tend to drive their kids to school dues to fear of child abductions and related ever-present paranoia.

Is it true that in some places this paranoia has gotten so far that you’ll get reported to child services if you let your kids walk to school?

> 3) Boston's weather is also miserable - the place is at just latitude so that wet, 30 degree weather prevails in winter, giving freezing rain, frozen rain, slush and all manner of nastiness. Plus horrible hot, humid summers. So you have to avoid walking a lot.

In Slovenia, same latitude as Montreal, I walked to school and back every day for 16 years. Yes even college.

What’s the problem with walking a kilometer or two in ... weather? Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows, slush in spring, hot in summer ... so what? Just dress appropriately.

I have fond memories of early spring where you walk to school in a winter jacket and back from school in a t-shirt jacket in hand.

View on HN

> Is it true that in some places this paranoia has gotten so far that you’ll get reported to child services if you let your kids walk to school?

Not really. There have been cases of this (well, with young children walking with older siblings to a neighborhood playground), but they are rare and sensationalized.

> What’s the problem with walking a kilometer or two

Where I grew up in New Jersey I lived 2 miles (3.2 KM) from school and I was considered close to the school. Those who lived within a 10-20 minute walk would walk. Many of us who lived further away would rely on the bus.

Edit: And this was for elementary and middle school (up to age 13). From ages 14-18 everyone was significantly further away.

Assuming you were in a city rather than a rural area, is it because US school are larger & fewer? Nowhere in my hometown (250k mid-sized city) is more than 10-15 minutes walk from a school.

New Jersey doesn't have cities that large.

I was curious so I checked. According to Wikipedia we've two over 250k and 7 over 100k!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...

> is it because US school are larger & fewer

I don't know because I know very little about schools outside the US. My best guess would be that they vary everywhere and this isn't US specific.

> Assuming you were in a city rather than a rural area

Before I was born and when I was younger there were quite a few farms, but I didn't grow up with them. So I suppose it used to be rural and now is a suburb (in-between rural and a city). My town has about ~30k people.

There are a lot of sprawling cities (and I _think_ Boston may be one of those) where it would also be greater distances to walk to a school. ..so I'm not sure being a city is correlated to short walking distances to school.

3.2km isn’t that much, I had from age 10 on a 4.5km way to school, and we all would just cycle there, even during storms or with snow, or in 41°C heat, all year.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com