Summary
School districts across the U.S. are reducing bus services due to driver shortages and shifting transportation responsibilities to families, disproportionately affecting low-income households.
In Chicago, where only 17,000 of 325,000 students are eligible for buses, parents are turning to alternatives like ride-hailing apps.
Startups such as Piggyback Network and HopSkipDrive provide school transportation by connecting parents or contracting directly with districts, offering safety measures like real-time tracking and driver vetting.
Critics warn these solutions don’t fully address systemic inequities, as many families still struggle to afford or access reliable school transportation.
Then fix that.
And in the mean time?
In the meantime children need to die for their utopia get with the program
Well its not going to become safe to walk or bike if everyone abandons the idea entirely. Demand creates solutions.
Walk?
The public school my daughter would have to walk or bike to in your scenario would be down rural roads with no sidewalks before sunrise, roads people shoot down at 30 miles above the speed limit, and across a four-lane highway with no traffic lights.
But it’s nice to know that you’re willing to sacrifice other people’s children for not being “normal kids.”
(It’s always fascinating to me that some people think everyone lives in a city.)
I grew up in a rural area. I had to cycle to high school every day for 5 years. Regardless of weather. 12 kilometers each way. Not just me, everyone in my school and pretty much every other school in the country. Plenty of kids who had to cycle much farther than me as well.
How many traffic light-free four-lane highways did you have to cross? More or less than zero? How often did cars zip by you in the darkness going 150% the speed limit?
Because you ignored those things that I brought up and talked about distance, which I didn’t mention.
First you’re talking about living in a rural area, then you’re talking about 4 lane highways. Which one is it?
Both? Because that’s how it works in America?
Are you really unaware that four-lane highways criss-cross their way through the American countryside?
Here’s the state of Indiana, where I live, and all of the major highways and interstates. Obviously a lot of tiny towns with population 50 are left off, but I think you can figure out that “both” is how things work here:
And if that doesn’t help you, this is Indiana compared to Ireland:
Indiana, incidentally, is nowhere near the largest U.S. state.
Perhaps you should know how things work in a country before you start coming up with what you think are obvious solutions.
Sure, we also have highways that cross the countryside as well as E-roads (european international roads, which would be comparable to interstates). Not sure why that would be dangerous though, highways don’t have level crossings, ever. Doesn’t really matter if you go by car or bike, a level crossing on a highway would be suicidal.