<p>How far do K-12 students walk/bicycle/etc. to school these days? In other words, excluding driving or being driven in a car door-to-door. If a school bus or mass transit is involved, distance to walk/bicycle/etc. to bus or transit stops counts.</p>
<p>When I was in school, 3/4 of a mile was considered normally doable by elementary school students, while up to 3 miles was considered normally doable for junior high and high school students. But, from what I hear these days, such distances are considered “too far” these days (as child obesity increases and parents complain about having too little time because they have to drive their kids everywhere).</p>
<p>In good weather, my middle-schooler bikes 1 1/4 mile, and my junior high kid bikes 1 1/2 mile. In bad weather, I drive them. This includes most of the winter, and rainy days too. I would have them walk in the rain, but it would take them forever. Back when we walked 6 blocks to elementary school it could take 15 minutes, so I’m assuming 1 1/2 miles would take 45 minutes, an hour if there were cute dogs to stop and pet.</p>
<p>When I was in elementary school, I often missed the bus because it never was in the same place in line.( till 5th grade when a new school opened two blocks away).
It was 1.3 miles to walk home including crossing a fairly busy street ( with no crossing guards) that made me nervous.</p>
<p>Think distances are two miles for high school & a mile for grade school, but district measures it " as the crow flies", which doesn’t seem accurate.</p>
<p>Many routes are also not that safe, either have to cross busy streets without crossing guards or lights, or even no sidewalks.</p>
<p>Our elementary school is 1 mile away. So we walked it quite a bit. However the middle school is 6 miles away and the high school about 5 . It takes too long for that walk both ways every day.</p>
<p>Actually high school students are supposed to take public transportation, but as the latest attempt tp raise funds tp prevent route closures has failed, not sure where that is going to leave the students.</p>
<p>We chose a house specifically to avoid buses for schools. It’s about 1/4 mile to the elementary school, .6 to the jr. high and 1.2 to the high school. The kids mostly biked unless it was icy or they had a big project to carry. My youngest is now at a magnet hs so rides his bike up to the local hs (at 6:30 am) and gets a bus from there. About 50 yards from us is a busier street that is considered unsafe to cross and, until recently, did not have sidewalks. Kids on the other side of that take a bus.</p>
<p>I live in a bike and walk friendly city, though the weather is less than friendly for much of the winter. Regardless. my kids walked to HS, 1.3 miles, walked to middle school and later elementary,1.1 mile and took the bus to their K through 2nd school which was a 10 minute walk distant, because the powers that be decided even crossing guards could not keep them safe for those few blocks. When able, I walked with them, as I very much wanted them accustomed to walking as a means of transport. </p>
<p>My son would bike until the streets became icy, but the girls always had violins, so the walking was easier to manage than biking.</p>
<p>When they were in middle school and older, I was at work by 7, and there was no one to give rides, and they had to walk, no matter the weather. I now realize that they see this as a great hardship, as their friends had rides for the most part and they were out there trudging though icy and snow. Rather than building character, it seems to have built a dislike of severe winters, and they’d all rather live someplace warm.</p>
<p>It is hard. So much is judged by peer group standards, rather than what is ultimately better in terms of lifestyle in their formative years. I still think they were better off walking, and I think they’d agree, though they disliked it at the time. They all remain intrepid walkers. </p>
<p>In our town there’s no bus if you live closer than a 1.5 miles. My kids walked to our elementary school 0.5 miles. They took the bus to middle school - 3.2 miles. Though they walked a handful of times when there were bus problems and they thought it would be fun to walk home. The high school is 1.4 miles from us. Older son always walked, we took younger son to a zero period program, but he often walked home - at least until he had friends with cars, then it was a mix. He often got rides. </p>
<p>One good thing about all the walking was that my older son was not phased at all by being in the furthest away dorm at Carnegie Mellon - instead he reveled in having a huge apartment instead of a tiny shared room.</p>
<p>We live in a very bike and pedestrian unfriendly state. Our kids went to Catholic school, which was too far away to walk. Our zoned public school was less than 1 mile away (elementary, middle and high school), but even if we went that route our kids would not have walked/rode bikes. There are no sidewalks, and no bike lanes. They would have needed to cross a heavily trafficked route with no crossing guards. It just wouldn’t have been safe.</p>
<p>Our public school system only provides bus service for k-8 students who are 2+ miles from school. Budget cuts. IMO, that is ridiculous as many students live In areas I would not be comfortable walking 2 blocks. Some of them get rides. But surely some dont. There is a big difference between a 12 year old walking 1.5 miles and a 6 year old. My kids attended our neighborhood Cathilic school k-8. It’s a mile from home, but we dropped off in the morning and they were able to take a bus that dropped 3 blocks from home after school. Only walked if walked with them (which we did sometimes in good weather) because there was a very busy road to cross and at some point they got rid of the crossing guards!</p>
<p>I lived a mile away from my elementary school approximately and walked, but only if the weather was good. My mom drove me the rest of the time. We got rides in winter and if it rained. I think 5 miles is too far to walk for anybody, it would take too long at that time of the morning-- especially for a high schooler who has to be at school by 7am in the pitch black.</p>
<p>My subdivision is across the street from what will be our middle school, a block away from what will be our elementary school, and maybe a mile or two away from what will be our HS. I see a few kids walking but really only the ones who don’t have to cross the main road-- our kids would have to cross main roads to get to any of them. There are no crossing guards like we had when we were kids. I am very interested to see what the kids do these days. One thing I have noticed is that there are a lot of parents at the school bus stops in the morning, many in cars so the kids can wait in the heat and just run out when the bus pulls up. I never saw that when I was growing up. I’d love to walk my kids to school someday but I wonder how long they’ll allow it. I wouldn’t let an elementary schooler cross the main road with no crossing guard and I’d be hesitant to let a middle schooler too for fear they’d jaywalk directly across the street instead of walking a block down to the crosswalk.</p>
<p>We lived in the very back of our neighborhood and the elementary school was in the front. Right at 1 mile “as the crow flies” so we lost our bus service just as we thought S2 was old enough to come home on his own. A mile is not too far to walk and there were no streets to cross, but it’s long enough to be really miserable if the weather’s bad. DH and I were both working, and my mom offered to pick him up every day. She preferred that to being “on call” in case of bad weather.</p>
<p>This year with S1 a senior and S2 in 7th grade, they walked or rode the city bus to play rehearsals after school. We’ll have to decide next year if S2 can go on his own to rehearsals.</p>
<p>My kids walked to every school except upper elementary when they took the bus because it is about 2 1/2 miles down a busy road with no sidewalks. A bus was available for the lower elementary school, but I walked them the 1/2 mile. They would have had to leave the house 20 minutes earlier to ride the bus. Middle school was just over 1/2 mile, and the high school is only a block away. She’s likely to have a longer walk to class in college than she does now.</p>
<p>D14 ruled out a school when she realized it would be a 30 minute walk to the nearest bus stop to go to the nearest town. It was good that she went alone and had to rely on public transportation on that trip. She was very happy to have learned that tidbit before she decided to spend years there. She’s grown up accustomed to the independence of a short walk to town.</p>
<p>Every kid I know in elementary school either waits at the bus stop at the end of the driveway/their street with their parent or is dropped off at the school. The high schoolers might walk a block or two to the bus stop.</p>
<p>No bus if you live within a mile of the school but I see many kids riding bikes in good weather who live 2 miles away. One high schooler walks 3 miles as she refuses to learn to drive or take the bus and mom won’t drive her. She is in great shape and is very athletic.</p>
<p>In our district, ms & hs students under 3 miles away don’t get a school bus. When our kids (about 2.5 miles away) were in ms, there was an easy way to ride the public bus…and it was mostly a school-only route.</p>
<p>DS liked riding his bike to ms (when not snowy…we get a lot of clear days in CO). But there was issue of dark mornings, especially when he went for before-school jazz band. </p>
<p>Did you ever tell them the story of how you walked to school several miles every day, in all kinds of weather from blazing heat to freezing snow, uphill both ways? :)</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, I grew up in Phoenix, and never saw snow fall till my 20s! Though we thought frosty mornings were a real trial. But I walked a good distance to school, crossing busy streets in the process depending on the school. They have no sympathy!</p>