Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll end today with a call in for parents of school-age children on this two-part question, and it's related to the climate story of the week. Good follow-up on that in a way. Are you driving your kids to school in your car more than you did in the past? And has dropping your kids off at school and picking them up from school gotten more chaotic? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 give us a call. Are you driving your kids to school in your car more than you did in the past and has dropping your kids off at school and picking them up from school gotten more chaotic? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Why do we ask? One of the things that sparked our idea for this conversation is a new piece in the Atlantic by the writer Kendra Hurley. The headline for that piece? How School Drop-off Became A Nightmare. Hurley writes, "Stop by an elementary school mid-morning and you're likely to find a site of relative calm. Come at drop off though, and you'll probably see a very different picture. The school perimeters thickening with jigsaw layers of sedans, minivans, and SUVs."
The reason? It might be, as the writer posits, that more parents than ever in America drive their kids to school, making the school car line a massive ordeal. Does this resonate with you? What's your experience of the school drop-off line, and has it changed in recent years? Did the pandemic or anything else make you change from your kids walking to school or taking the school bus or taking mass transit to you driving them there? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Kendra Hurley wrote in that Atlantic piece, "Suburban towns are building sprawling schools on cheap land far from where most schoolchildren live, the carline codified into their architectural design." That's in suburbs and exurbs.
In cities, she writes, "School choice policies have empowered families to swap their local school for the charter school across town." Listeners, help us report this story and understand this predicament. Have you been driving your kids to school rather than putting them on public transit or the school bus or having them walk or even take a bike? If they didn't in the past, is this going on more in your circles and has school pickup and drop-off become a nightmare? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 give us a call or send us a text. We'll take your calls and text right after this.
Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your calls on whether you're driving your kids to school in your car more than you did in the past, and has dropping them off at school and picking them up from school gotten more chaotic? Solange in Brooklyn has a story for us I think. Hi, Solange, you're on WNYC.
Solange: Hi, how are you doing? It is chaotic, and it's a nightmare. I grew up in Brooklyn, all of my schools were down the block. My junior high school, my elementary school. It's not the same anymore with all the changes with DOE. Some for the good, some for the bad. A lot of kids now go to school outside of their neighborhood and depending on where you live, the trains aren't that convenient so it's better to just drive your child. Or the trains are just too packed. It is a nightmare. It's increasing traffic.
If I put my kid on the school bus, it literally takes her an hour and a half to get to school by driving. It takes me 25 minutes. The school bus doesn't make sense either. If I do put her on the school bus, there's no after school for her so I can't do the pickup from the school bus. It's a nightmare. It adds another layer to my morning commute. I have to decompress for when I get to work because I already spent two hours doing something.
Brian Lehrer: It takes all the time.
Solange: My heart goes out to all the parents.
Brian Lehrer: What's the scene like when you're at the school?
Solange: It's just a bunch of double-parked cars [inaudible 00:05:02] waiting. It causes a lot of traffic. My kids go to school in Carroll Gardens and I live in Crown Heights, so really not too far from each other. 25 minutes like I said. It's literally two rows of cars, minivans of drop-offs [crosstalk]. We have to be careful. We all watch each other's cars so there's no ticketing. Double park ticket is 100 and something dollars.
Brian Lehrer: You could be a poster mom for that article in the Atlantic, Solange. Thank you very much. Elizabeth in Jackson Heights, you're on WNYC. Hi, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Hi there. I would say yes, I've definitely noticed in the past couple years more people driving especially at pickup in front of both my kids elementary and middle school. These aren't magnet schools, these are local neighborhood schools. I'm not quite sure where the drivers are coming from. You think even 5% of parents in a school with 700 kids, that's a lot of cars. I really think we need a public education campaign about considerations to take.
We have a big problem at my school. It creates dangerous conditions for kids crossing the street. We have very crowded sidewalks because most people do walk to pick up their kids. Then you have people waiting in their cars with their windows rolled up idling. Especially when it's hot out, the air pollution increases for everyone that has to be outside. A couple of times I've asked people very kindly, "Would you mind turning off your engine?" They look at me like I have three heads.
Brian Lehrer: Elizabeth, thank you. If you're just sitting there, you could at least turn off your engine instead of idling. Elizabeth, thank you very much. Listener writes in a text message, "While right now we take the subway, we debate driving because despite my kids getting omni cards, we don't. Commuting the kids to school maxes out the metro costs adding almost $300 a month to our budget, not to mention 22 hours and commuting to kids, whereas driving means a couple of gallons of gas a month and a quarter of the time." There's a case in point. Kat in Pleasantville in Westchester, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kat.
Kat: Hi, how are you? I'm a weird case because I walked my kids to school. Pleasantville, New York, is under 2 miles. It's tiny, and we don't have busing. One of the reasons I wanted to move here was to walk my kids and have this community experience. My kids are now 26 and 28, and I am now walking another little boy to school. He's in third grade, and I walk him every morning because there's no bussing so working parents have a bit of a problem.
There's not that many of us who walk anymore. It's very, very, very different. There are still walkers for sure, but there are so many more car people that traffic is backed up for a quarter a mile, half a mile on the two streets that sandwich the elementary school. Traffic is backed up going up my block to the high school. Parents are even driving high school kids to school. What I've noticed is they're all eating breakfast in the car and watching their phone and would rather be in traffic for 15, 20 minutes than walk in five. It's very different.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Very interesting report from a walkable New York City suburb where not as many people are walking anymore. Kat, thank you very much. Listener sends a text message that says, "I'm an Uber driver. I drop off parents and kids to the charter school. Some of the lines are better organized than others, but it's chaos. It has resulted in me telling parents that I'm going to have to drop you off a block away from the school if you want this ride. It once took me 30 minutes to move two blocks after I dropped off a parent and kids because of all the incoming traffic and the small neighborhood." Kylie in northern Virginia is next. Kylie, you're on WNYC. Hello.
Kylie: Hello. We live in a DC suburb and we drive our son to school mainly because we miss the bus. I miss the bus often on the corner. The drop-off line is good. The school does it very, very well. We have been unable to get in the drop-off line because my son gets out of the car very slowly. We have to pull into the parking lot and park in a handicapped spot which is illegal I know, and then send him off that way. I would really love to walk like the other caller said, but we've got to get ourselves together better in the morning to walk to school.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Kylie. Listener writes, "I drive my kids more than before because most kids on the bus these days have their heads in their cell phones rather than socializing. I don't need my kids sitting like zombies with their eyes fixed on social media when I can drive them to school and have a conversation with them. It's a shame and less sustainable than the bus, but worth it for the quality time with my kid." Last one. Who's going to get our last 30 seconds here? Josephine and Elizabeth, we're going to sneak you in here. Hey, Josephine.
Josephine: Hi, Brian. How are you?
Brian Lehrer: Good. We got 30 seconds. Use it well.
Josephine: Hi. I was just responding to doctor dad's caller's statement. No one wants to really take the bus or really walk to school anymore. Part of walking to school is so that you can make friends. You can walk with your friends, walk with your comrade, have a conversation. No one does that. When you do drive them to school, it's a complete nightmare. Everybody park each and every way. No one respects anybody anymore. They don't even respect the kids. The kids, I believe have rights. Not so much the parents but it's no fun. [crosstalk] Everybody's watching.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. The person who texted, I don't know, maybe it's a double edged sword. The kids on the bus maybe on their phones a lot, but they are on the bus with each other. You get your quality time one on one with your kid in the car, but then they're not with other kids. We hear these stories. A lot of people conflicted. That's what I take out of this. A lot of people conflicted about this as a tough choice. Thank you for sharing. That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today. Stay tuned for Allison.
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