Enrique Renalosa once said, “if we’re going to talk about transportation, I would say that the great city is not the one that has highways, but one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can go safely everywhere.”
Moving from one place to another people need a form of safe and accessible transportation: School is one of the most important places to have that.To provide safe transport to all students, schools should decrease the distance of bus access 1.5 miles because most parents work, therefore most adolescents don’t have rides, the unsafe roadways and construction in the community, and because of dangers such as kidnapping in some communities.
Income
For most families to have a stable financial situation or income both parents or the parents need to work thus, they cannot provide the student with a ride to and from school.
The Institute of Emergency Issues or IEI policy intern, Brodie Smith’s, article The employment of parents and caregivers of young children, addressed that “in February 2022, … 52.3% of all mothers worked full time, compared to 85% of fathers.”
In other words more than half of mothers in the US and almost one hundred percent of dads work 8 to 10 hours a day, plus most of them also have to make sure that their kids get to school safely. In addition, school time can start between the hours of 7 to 9 am and at the same time as work starts for most companies.
As in an NBC News article, Get Your Kids to School or Keep Your Job? Parents’ Stress Over Transportation interviewee, “Kelly Aluise, a realtor and mother of two, said that though her job allows for flexible hours, there have been plenty of times when getting her young daughter to school or to an event has interfered with her work.”
Hours
Even with the schools starting at the same time with work many shifts are longer than school days are so parents picking their kid up is a whole other problem. Mainly there is a few minutes between the attendance bell and when people clock in.
Furthermore, construction and busy roads in communities cause an unsafe walking environment for all people. The Texas Department of Transportation states that in , “2023, there were 748 traffic crashes in Texas school zones, resulting in one death and 14 serious injuries.”
How would you feel if you were a parent at work and got a call that your kid was involved in an accident walking to school? People get hurt every day in crashes and accidents but that shouldn’t be happening in areas where kids should feel protected and out of harm’s way. Moreover, at crosswalks or at the intersections you have a way to know if the car coming next to you can stop or decide that they have more important things to do than wait for you to cross.
Dangers
Additionally, dangers that could happen in the community while the students walk or bike home such as kidnapping can have a big impact on all students.
According to the PMC or PubMed Central, “high levels of neighborhood incivilities were associated with lower levels of perceived safety (OR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.21 to 0.72). Living on a block above the median in incivilities was associated with a 353% increase in odds of walking to school (OR: 3.53; 95% CI: 1.68 to 7.39).”
When in a safer place or place that may seem safer, adolescents tend to be able to go outside more and to walk to school.
PMC also addresses in the article Safe To Walk? Neighborhood Safety and Physical Activity Among Public Housing Residents recorded how “Garry Bennett and [his] colleagues measured exercise levels and obtained opinions on neighborhood safety,” and “they concluded that residing in a neighborhood perceived to be unsafe at night is a barrier to regular physical activity.”
In all neighborhoods people could feel unsafe but it is a lot more common for people to stay indoors anytime of the day if they are living in a community that has a history of any and all types of violence.
All things considered, because of dangers in communities, the amount of hours parents work causing kids to go without transportation, and how there is a lot of construction in neighborhoods and around school, schools should decrease the distance to access for buses to one point five miles.