Walk to School

     If you live less than a mile from your child's school  you should try walking when the weather is good. My daughter's middle school is about 3/4 mile from our house, but I'm always surprised at how many kids who live roughly the same distance are driven to school. Sometimes we're running late, or it's raining, and we drive. But often, we walk.
     If we walk we have to leave the house about 10 minutes earlier in the morning. But we save a little gasoline, it's great exercise, we get fresh air, and it gives us a chance to talk. I figure that if we walk to school three mornings a week, thirty-six weeks a year, that's 54 miles less driving and about 15 hours more conversation with my daughter. Well worth it. The only downside is that I have to leave her a short block from the school so that no one sees us together!! (Why is being seen with a parent so humiliating when you're in middle school??)

Comments

[Lina Panza]

Walking to school is great opportunity to kill many birds with one stone: The exercise bird, the gas consumption bird and the communicate-with-your-child bird. On the down side, Montclair's magnet school system puts many children in schools outside of their neighborhoods, often at distances too far to walk with a 30lb back pack. My kids currently attend Glenfield Middle school which is more than 2 miles and 40 minutes on foot from my house. Next year when they go to the high school it'll be a 10 minute walk and you can be sure they'll be walking most of the time.

[Janet]

That's a great idea. Why haven't more towns thought of this? It's worth proposing, even if they don't have the budget now to convert to more eco-friendly fuel.

[sean]

I wonder if towns could design a dual use bus for eldery and kids for school. That way you could use buses one more time a day. Make them all biodiesel?