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t1_is6vbuy wrote

Why are you driving kids to school? Isn't that what school busses are for?

Less traffic for everyone that way (you too).

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t1_is7awjs wrote

One of the most-common complaints every city and county gets: "There's too much congestion at my kids' school! Do something about it!"

Many school districts have a seat on a bus for every child. Some require children within a certain distance (like one mile) walk to school, but the rest have a seat on a bus.

And what happens? There's a giant traffic jam of SUVs and minivans outside every school, because the parents think their child deserves better than riding the bus. Or they can't bear the idea their child walk a mile a day.

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t1_is7kony wrote

I'm all for kids taking busses and walking but there's also a bus driver shortage.

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t1_is7s06n wrote

If you increase pay... The shortage disappears.

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t1_is8qg2k wrote

They work a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon. Its essentially part time. Who wants that?

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t1_is8txa7 wrote

So... Increase pay? Or stagger school schedules so they drive all day. These problems have solutions.

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t1_isfqgwd wrote

Adjusting school schedules is not the fix. Now you have parents that have to adjust all of THEIR jobs for a handful of bus drivers. Get your city transit to run a few routes. That's what they did for awhile in Richland. Or it wouldn't kill the little darlings to walk.

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t1_is7kazc wrote

No school 'requires' a student to walk to school. Perhaps parents feel like it's a safer option to accompany their children to school.

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t1_is7maps wrote

Kids within a mile of the school here in King County by default don’t get a seat on the school bus. Might be able to get one in certain circumstances but the default is no seat. Source: am parent with kid who had no seat on bus

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t1_is7zk9e wrote

It’s the same in Pierce. I would have to walk with or drive my daughter next year since we live within a mile of the elementary school. They only run a bus for certain neighborhoods due to distance.

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t1_is7rxqh wrote

Sure. And those are, I guarantee you, the same parents complaining about how traffic is so bad at their school when they go to drop off & pick up their kids.

I hear the phone calls, I read the emails.

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t1_is7rma2 wrote

It takes less than 5 minutes for me to drive my kid to school, but the bus ride is over an hour. A stretch of the drive has a 50 MPH section, and no sidewalk, and barely any room on the white line between a guard rail. The worst part is watching other buses going back to the depot, while still waiting for my kid…

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