I am always amazed at the number of parents driving their children to school when the school district furnishes buses for everyone. If asked, I’m sure every parent behind the wheel of an enormous SUV would say they are concerned about the environment. So why are there such long lines of cars at the high school, middle, and grammar schools? Have you ever seen more than two or three kids get off the bus? Sometimes the busses are empty!
I know, because I ride my bike to work every morning. The most frazzled mothers, multi-texting, driving and dropping off kids, are the ones that threaten to kill me each morning. They drive 50 mph on residential streets and end up running stop signs, just to get their special, privileged kids to school.
What an unrealistic set of expectations. Can you imagine 2025 and a world where we are allowed to drive gasoline automobiles to drop off kids at school, when a perfectly good public transportation system is in place? This is just another example of entitlement amongst the wealthy in Princeton.
In a recent New York Times feature Eduardo Garcia cites the non-use of school buses as a major issue for noise, gridlock, and greenhouse emissions: “According to a Department of Transportation estimate, 10 and 14 percent of car trips during morning rush hour nationwide are for school travel… Buses are better for the environment than everyone driving to school in cars.”
Maybe you start off slow, getting kids un-hooked from chauffeured rides to school one or two days a week. Maybe they won’t be so popular that day at school, but they might learn to be a bit more conservative, resourceful, and a little bit humbler.
— Anne Daniecki, Holly House
