<p>Both my parents work full time jobs. My mom gets home around 6/7 and my dad gets home very late, like 11PM/12AM if he’s here, and he’s often on business trips. </p>
<p>My mom gives me a ride to school and I usually get a ride home with a friend or stay at the local library until my mom can pick me up. </p>
<p>But I don’t turn 16 until this October (my Junior year) and won’t get my junior license until April-ish.<br>
This makes it difficult for me to be able to volunteer/work at the places I want to, which usually close by 6PM. And I could only find 1 art class that I’d be able to take.
It’s even worse during the summer because I have all this time and all these things I could be doing but I have no way of getting to them</p>
<p>I drive (w00t for driving), but the majority of my friends who don’t take PT. Check the bus schedules; there’s probably one that stops near your school and goes near where you need to go.</p>
<p>Public busses don’t always work- some just aren’t safe or you don’t have them.</p>
<p>For me? I drive myself now, but pre that my mom got me everywhere…
For the most part, back in middle school (pre me going to a private school that doesn’t have school buses), most of my EC’s were at the school and I could take the late bus home.</p>
<p>I have the same problem. My mother is a single parent and she works, roughly until 6:30 every night. It’s sometimes possible for her to leave work to drive me around for about ten minutes, but usually, she’s in meetings and unable to leave. </p>
<p>She drops me off at school, and my completely unmotivated neighbor’s grandfather gives me rides home. I say completely unmotivated because when he’s not playing football, he’s sitting in his bedroom playing videogames, and he would never even think about staying for an EC. My mother refuses to ask his grandfather to come back to the school to pick me up if I have to stay late because he’s older and has health problems, and there is no latebus. Most of my friends live on the other side of town and are unable to drive me home without going far out of their way. I’m not allowed to walk home, for whatever reason, and I don’t get my license until my senior year (I’m a sophomore). </p>
<p>So, last year, I was pretty much stuck, and only allowed to go to EC’s when my neighbor had football practice. This year, I’m not playing by those rules anymore. I’ll sit outside of the school until my mother gets off work if I have to.</p>
<p>If she’s in NY she could also look into other options like the subway or even taxi’s…they’re a bit more pricey but they get you where you need to go.</p>
<p>I’m in NY but suburbs not the city. If I was in the city it would be no problem at all…I could walk nearly anywhere and I’d have a MetroCard</p>
<p>So no luck in the public transportation department…there aren’t buses that stop by our school and/or go to the places I need to be</p>
<p>The other problem is that my school district encompases ~5 towns and most of my friends live at least 15-20 minutes away from me in the opposite direction. Plus they wouldn’t be interested in doing what I want to do (art classes, volunteering at the historical society, etc)</p>
<p>Its just really annoying because I really want to be doing this stuff and I can’t just because of a lack of transportation.<br>
Damn NY. There are places where kids can drive at 15. </p>
<p>Colleges should take that into consideration, haha.
It’s really unfair though. I know people who have parents who don’t work and are basically their personal chauffers when required. A big advantage.
Maybe I’ll post in the Parents Forum</p>
<p>^^ You have pretty much the same problem I do, w/ the school that encompasses five towns. I live in the NY suburbs too. Are you sure we don’t go to the same school? :p</p>
<p>Why are people so dependent in every single thing they do? Your body is given amazingly strong muscles and stamina, use it.</p>
<p>Start running, and schedule the running time in so that you have enough time to get there. Even if you suck at running now, if you start going a couple miles every day there and back to every activity, you get really good really fast.</p>
<p>Or get a bike. Get a used bike on Craigslist for 50 bucks, and you can get to some places faster than you can in a car. Combine a bike with public transit, and you can go pretty much anywhere.</p>
<p>Yes, some people may be in the middle of nowhere, but a bike can get you surprisingly far. And this is your only option when you don’t have friends or parents that can transport you.</p>
<p>New York is not just made up of New York City! I live in Upstate NY, and public transportation is nonexistent in my small town. The nearest buses and taxis are in Syracuse, about half an hour away. Running and biking may be options for those who live closer to town, but plenty of people live around 5 miles away or more…like me. Especially in winter, which lasts around 6 months here, running and biking are impractical.</p>
<p>Johnson:
My school district has school buses but of course I have to make life difficult for myself. I moved here in 8th grade and we all go to one middle school…usually they divide classes by wing depending on which highschool you are going to but I took 9th grade Honors classes. There is a small enrollment so all kids from all wings take them together. So I made friends with people who go to the South h.s. when I was supposed to be going to North.<br>
It was easy enough to change the h.s. but they won’t send an extra bus to pick you up, because you are out of South h.s. boundaries. I live ~15-20minutes away from my h.s. by car</p>
<p>pcpharaoh:
I can easily stay after school for the ECs that take place in school, but the places I want to volunteer or take classes at are another 10-20 minutes by car from both my school and my house and are located on highways. </p>
<p>I can’t run/ride my bike on the highway. </p>
<p>Johnson: same. my area isn’t rural at all but the places where I want to go are located pretty far apart and on very busy roads.</p>
<p>Ah- I have the tendency to forget that some ny districts have more than one high school. My old district was 5 elementary schools, 2 jr highs (not middle schools), and then one big high school. You could switch middle schools, if for some reason you had a problem, but you were out of luck for transportation unless enough people asked for a bus. And another one I went to for a year was similar (5 el., 1 middle school, 1 hs).
Hum… what to do then? My mom never let me bum rides from others, especially teen drivers. But seeing as your mom clearly does, what about joining EC’s where there are plenty of upperclassmen that can, in fact, drive? </p>
<p>My reasoning for the whole “no bike” policy isn’t necessarily distance though (although a good chunk is).
I live in a city, so yes, there are busses. But no, they are not safe and I would never step foot on one. Plus, no a.c. on them either.
Today I believe it is 102 with 80% humidity or so. No way would I consider running 2-5 miles in that. That’s crazy. 1 mile? MAYBE if I didn’t have to be somewhere and look the slightest bit presentable. Not to mention the safety concerns again. Yay for living in a US city that has one of the highest crime rates! But now I’m just rambling…</p>
<p>Okay, my goodness, stop jumping all over me.</p>
<p>I just assumed, NOT because of what I think of new york, because I live in CA and there’s pretty much PT everywhere here. I live in the suburbs as well and I could get a bus if I needed to. (Not that I would want to because buses kinda kreep me out but yeah).</p>
<p>Well I don’t know what to tell ya…the only thing I can think of is what someone else said, bum rides with people. (Trust me it’s very common I’ve driven so many people around my town XD)</p>
<p>I wasn’t jumping all over you or anyone in particular. Just making my point that there’s a lot more to NY than NYC and that public transportation isn’t always available.</p>
Outside of Manhattan, all of those subways and taxis are almost nonexistant.</p>