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Comment by Reason077 | Hacker News Reader

> "The US seems to be the only country that has this problem. Children here (Norway) walk to school on their own at the age of five or six, some of them take buses."

I grew up in New Zealand, and when I was a kid it was pretty normal to walk to school also. I spent my whole childhood walking 20-30 mins every morning and afternoon! Eventually I got a bike which saved a bit of time.

But now days, I think it's not as common. My nieces seem to get shuttled everywhere in their Mum's car. One issue is that there's a lot more cars on the roads now days so it doesn't feel as safe or as friendly for pedestrians as it used to.

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Over here in Australia I remember the same, kids walking to school at 5 years old. In fact one time my mum forgot to pick me up, so I walked to my friend's house. Turns out it was the wrong day, oops.

But now I see cars lined up at the school near me, around the block. They'd rather sit in a line in their car blocking traffic for half an hour, instead of just parking one block away and walking with their kids (there is plenty of untimed parking, it's residential). Or, god forbid, asking their kid to meet them at a convenient corner each day. So I don't think it's just a safety thing, some parents are a little lazy too and would rather just sit in their car instead of walking or meeting other parents.

This might be a country vs city thing too, since I'm in Sydney now.

Some of the schools near me in London close the street during pick-up and drop off times to prevent exactly that:

https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200259/transport_and_...

Seems popular and does seem to create a good social vibe on the street: parents actually chatting to each other rather than sitting in their idling cars!

The block I'm talking about has "no stopping" signs specifically during school pickup hours to block cars idling. But, either it's a grey area or they just don't enforce - I'd guess the parents would say they are "stuck in traffic" and not just stopped and waiting. Except maybe the one in the front. Either way, if you want to turn left at the traffic lights while that's happening you have to do it illegally from the centre lane to get around them (2-lane roads, but the left is full and the only legal turning lane there).

Closing the streets could work but I think we already have the tools we need (it worked differently in the past, right?) but choose not to use them.

That’s a nice touch. Where we are it’s a little impractical as there’s only a single road through the village but it also means that that we’d only have to man the single point of crossing.

It’s the catch22 of it I suppose.

Also grew up in rural Nz where walking / cycling alone from a fairly young age was normal. Now my kids are at that age they cycle a bit on their own, but even in our village there is a street they need to cross on the way to school where they need supervision. Really we should start a community lollipop person schedule and sort it out.

> ”Really we should start a community lollipop person schedule and sort it out.”

Ahh yes! My primary school in NZ had two nearby crossings over a “busy” road (but probably not that busy by today’s standards)

I remember doing lollipop duty on it a few times. As a kid. A very prestigious assignment and we got some special high-vis to wear and everything. I assume there must have been some volunteer parents involved as well, but I really don’t remember now. Would have been too caught up in the excitement, haha.

>> Really we should start a community lollipop person schedule and sort it out.

That's how it's done in Japan in the mornings. Kids first collect into small local groups, they walk together to the nearest designated adult helper. From that point, there are adults manning every crossing to the school. They help the groups cross.

It's not a huge commitment for the adults. Maybe 20 minutes on average. Not every week.

> lollipop person

TIL, "crossing guard" in Kiwi, how much cuter is that?

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