School's new policy bans parents from walking children to school
fox26houston.com
fox26houston.com
The assumption was no one would ever willingly use anything but a car to go anywhere, even half a mile away, unless they really really had no choice.
I started taking to wearing a collared shirt when I went for a jog to avoid being looked at or treated like a homeless person. Of course, then I would constantly get asked if I needed a ride. But eventually I just did it less and less because of all the stray dogs, not an issue I've ever seen so much in places where walking is normal for the non-destitute.
One time I tried biking through a drive through (the walk in doors were closed for some reason) and they threatened to call the police on me.
Another time, despite being clean and well dressed, I was treated like a homeless shoplifter at a CVS, and I'm sure it's because they saw me walk in off the street instead of from the parking lot.
Nothing remotely like any of this has ever happened in the northeast. Even in the least walkable places in the northeast, people are at least not surprised if someone insists on trying to walk places -- they-re probably just some ex-new Yorker, ex bostonite, etc.
It was like being in a different country with different customs. Indeed I've learned the US is a more culturally varied place than I had thought as a young boy consuming national market media.
If you like to walk don't be a dumbass and think you can move to somewhere like Texas and "I'll just walk around the leafy suburbs then"
Maybe you will and sure, people do it, and neighborhoods certainly vary, but it really depends and you will find it is not something you can take for granted like on Europe, latin America, or the northeast corridor of the US.
FWIW when I lived in Davis, CA (city logo: a bike) drive-thrus had the same policy. They usually disallow pedestrians and bikes for "safety & liability" reasons (whether those are reasonable is an exercise left to the reader)
I have a bike trailer and both my wife and I bike with the kids. The only thing I don’t see a lot in the suburbs are people picking up groceries.
Nevertheless, prior to moving to the midsouth i did not realize this was an amenity I needed to have on my radar, as this does not happen in the northeast
(2) I'm not even talking about infrastructure. I'm talking about trying to walk anyway despite having bad walking infra, being willing to do so, trying it, and having issues due to PEOPLE and their attitudes.
(3) I said mid south, not south (roughly, texas and its surrounding "client states"... Arguably maybe Missouri. US regional taxonomy is hard and somewhat subjective). It's bad enough I'm generalizing about a whole region, at the very least I want to narrow it down a little more than just "the south"
Definitely, most people drive when they're actually going to a destination. The cities are designed with this assumption. Recreational walking or jogging is common within neighborhoods, and kids walking to/from school isn't uncommon either (since those are often in or near one's neighborhood), but if you want to walk to the store (in most areas) you'll be crossing vast unshaded stretches of sidewalk, parking lots, major roads where people aren't used to pedestrians, etc. Bike lanes are also rare and mostly confined to urban centers.
But I've never seen or heard of active hostility or suspicion toward someone just because they're walking somewhere (and I love walking, so I do it whenever/wherever it makes sense to)
Or maybe Oklahoma just sucks more than Texas?
Idk, but it was a pervasive thing I kept noticing over the years.
As you might imagine Austin is an outlier on this stuff, but I was mainly thinking of the Dallas area with my descriptions above (though a lot of it applies in Austin too)
It makes me wonder if the principal is targeting parents from the coasts.
I also saw some of this culture near Little Rock, Arkansas but nowhere near as bad, so yes, it varies.
As someone who used to walk to elementary school and later enjoyed riding a bicycle to school, the mere concept of being told you have to take a bus or get dropped off in a car is very baffling to me.
I especially remember those days when it rained. It rained cats and dogs, and I would walk slowly, focused, being in the senses, thinking in abstract ways, happy, sometimes with umbrella, sometimes all wet, maneuvering between pools of water and hundreds of earthworms (pavement close to school was especially packed).
Sometimes I still get this state of mind, I wish I would be in it more often.
Or in snow. I remember it being dark, snow sparkling in city lights. Amazing. Sometimes we would play with other children on our way to school, already. Sometimes, still in the dark, we would make a shortcut and play in the corn fields (effectively destroying crops) and being chased by the owner (being chased was rather 'an afternoon thing').
Returning home with friends entailed possible detours.
Recently I kind of realized how this walking alone to school and back home was just, I could call it, very high state of consciousness.
"Those were the days of our lives."
I hope these worlds are not totally forgotten.
I wonder why a car dealer would be interested in preventing walkability.
I agree that prohibiting walking to school is a ridiculous thing, but I think it's more likely an extreme case of CYA by the school administration or local school board, afraid of getting blamed for anything that might happpen related to a student or parent walking to or from school.
This whole only in America "Texan car dealer sponsors school walking ban" .... just seems too perfectly crafted to not be bait for climate outrage. From where I'm standing, you just couldn;t make this stuff up.
That's not what the article says - that's what the headline says. The article just says parents can't walk onto school grounds to get their kids.
I live in Seattle now, and the elementary schools here have a 1 mile walk boundary before they will bus you. About 1/3 of students in Seattle walk or bike to school.
As a result many kids ride their bikes to school. In my neighborhood elementary school kids and middle school kids are crossing 4 lane roads to get to school. The elementary school has a stoplight, so that helps, but the middle school does not. I'm amazed no one has ever been hurt!
> Elementary and K-8 school sites have a 1-mile walk boundary. Eligible students are provided service primarily on yellow school buses. Middle school sites have a 2-mile walk boundary.
Presumably that means the kids can simply wait just off of school grounds? The article doesn't even mention this obvious option, so am I missing something?
It seems likely that the policy was a form of CYA-driven fearfulness that was not shared by all of the parents.
That suggests it's real, but I can't find a follow-up.