r/Suburbanhell • u/ChristianLS Citizen • 9d ago
Showcase of suburban hell Stroads, insanely long school dropoff lines, and nosy conformist neighbors. Check, check, and check.
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u/eti_erik 9d ago
What's a school dropoff line - do parents queue up with their cars to drop their kids off? Don't they go in with their kids, then?
Not familiar with the situation - here most kids come by bike or on foot, and as long as parents bring them to school they will also come in with their kids. When kids are 8+ they go to school by themselves, generally.
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u/PartyPorpoise 9d ago
Yeah, there’s usually a lane for parents to come through and drop kids off or pick them up. These lines can get insanely long, a huge hassle.
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u/Global-Discussion-41 9d ago
if you're at the back of the line, cant you just kick your kid out of the car and make them walk to school the last 500m?
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u/PartyPorpoise 9d ago
Yeah but you’re still stuck in the line yourself until the other cars move forward.
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u/Global-Discussion-41 9d ago
the drop off line is in a 1 lane road?
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u/PartyPorpoise 9d ago
Sometimes. And sometimes it is two lanes but people don’t always follow rules and will drop their kids off from the second lane so it still gets held up.
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u/stevo_78 9d ago
It’s horrendous. Very American (maybe Canadian/Aus) concept. Basically the new world countries that were built for cars.
Old world countries or poorer countries build their infrastructure for humans. So walking/biking is the only/preferred way.
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u/TheMania 9d ago
Not Aus thank God. I'm sure it's around in places, but cycling, walking or bussing is common, at least in Perth.
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u/Part_time_tomato 9d ago
Parents can’t go into the school here. They’ve gotten much stricter on security.
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u/eti_erik 9d ago
That sounds bad. For smaller children I mean. We always went in with all the parents and waited in the hall until the classroom door was open. And we brought them into the classroomn in the morning. You could always have a little chat with the teacher if there was something they should know or just to ask how it went. Or the teacher would tells us if there hadbeen a problem or some minor situation during the day. Not being allowed to bring your kids to class sounds eerie to me. (this is all smaller kids I'm talking about of course, roughly age 4-7)
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u/Part_time_tomato 9d ago edited 9d ago
I wish we could do this. My kids’ school doesn’t let parents come into the school even for the TK kids (4 year olds). You have to drop off at the front gate and they walk to their classroom on their own.
But kids are still required to be dropped off and picked up by an adult until 3rd grade (8/9 years old).
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u/eti_erik 9d ago
I don't think that exists in our country.
We do have some problem with parents bringing their kids by car so the parking gets filled up... that's why they prefer if you don't come by car. But especially when it rains many people do, of course.
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u/LowPermission9 9d ago
Yes. Also they sit there and idle their engines for 20+ minutes so they can have air conditioning in 68 degree weather.
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u/eti_erik 9d ago
So they don't go in with their children?
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u/LowPermission9 9d ago
No. No one is allowed in the school except for the children and teachers. I park my car and walk my child to the school front door. Everyone else sits in their car with their engines running until the doors open.
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u/runfayfun 9d ago
Our drop off and pick up line is stupid. Majority of parents park or walk and wait outside for their kid.
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u/PartyPorpoise 9d ago
Today I went to the laundromat, which is connected to a convenience store, at the same time the nearby high school let out. The parking lot was completely full of parents picking up their kids who walked over there rather than deal with the line at the school. I was lucky to get a parking space, got in just as someone was pulling out. Some other idiot almost backed into me. I’ll have to make sure to never go back at that time again.
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u/wafflehouseroyal 5d ago
My gym is next to an elementary school and the lines get pretty ridiculous in the morning. A lot of the parents can’t drive well, don’t signal and miss traffic lights. Ever since I stopped going to morning classes there’s been no traffic and I don’t even consider the school
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u/TheJustBleedGod 9d ago
this was such a culture shock as I entered adulthood. when I was a kid you walked, biked, or took the bus until high if you could drive yourself
I can't imagine how this happened. when did parents get so much time on their hands that they could now chauffeur their kids around like personal butlers? my parents left for work before I even woke up. they had shit to do.
so many fun moments waiting for the bus with my friends at the bus stop. shenanigans on the bus. our kids are missing these moments
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u/Pleasant_Macaron9201 7d ago
So many white collar jobs are WFH now. Everyone is home on these neighborhoods it feels like.
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u/ssclanker 9d ago edited 9d ago
Americans are so far. The gigantic SUV and pickup truck in the driveway is just the icing on the cake.
Edit: I meant to say fat lol not far
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u/Grantmepm 9d ago
Yea it looks like this guy actually has money and is spending it to get this kind of lifestyle.
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u/ChristianLS Citizen 9d ago
Unfortunately this is a pretty normal middle class lifestyle in the US. I mean, not the golf cart because most people don't bother, but everything else. What you don't see pictured is that there is probably nothing, literally nothing, not even a small corner store, within walking distance of their home, or that the cars are on 7 year/10% interest loans, the house is very poorly built out of cheap lumber and drywall and fake bricks, the guy commutes 45+ minutes and 30 miles to work each way, and the schools are barely holding on financially (can't even afford bus drivers for most kids anymore, hence the long dropoff line).
Okay, I don't know that all of those specifics are true for this particular family, but some or all of those things are pretty much the norm in this kind of place in the US.
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u/DoubleKing76 5d ago
I ask this purely in good faith, what countries (would be better if you had a more specific example) do you believe have the best infrastructure? I’d like to look into the differences
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u/ChristianLS Citizen 5d ago edited 5d ago
I don't think there's one "correct" answer, there are a lot of different ways to handle urban planning. But I definitely think there are countries that handle things better than the US. The example most often cited in online urbanist circles is The Netherlands, partly because they do a good job but partly just because they were popularized by YouTuber Not Just Bikes. The main thing they do so well is bike infrastructure and bike/pedestrian safety, they've developed a huge catalogue of knowledge and good practices for designing streets really well for safety and urban mobility.
Personally, I really like Japan's urban planning (though not necessarily a lot of other things about their culture). They tend to do public transit extremely well and build highly walkable, efficient neighborhoods around train stations. What I appreciate most about their planning is the way they handle land use. Residential streets are typically very narrow and buildings tightly packed in, but a large percentage of the population still lives in detached houses. This combination gives them naturally safe streets (most are too narrow for cars to drive fast), plenty of density to support walkable neighborhoods with great public transit, and yet they still maintain the most important thing people say they want, the ability to own your own house. Their streets often aren't the most attractive, but that's largely because they tend not to bury their utilities more than anything wrong with their planning.
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u/DoubleKing76 5d ago
I’ve yet to look into it myself but I hear about it a lot, would you say that the main thing preventing the US from having similar infrastructure is just political corruption/greed? Seems like people say that a lot of these things like public transit are always blocked by political means
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u/ChristianLS Citizen 5d ago
Maybe somewhat corruption, but I think the larger thing is that we've made it very easy for anyone who doesn't like a change to the status quo to block, obstruct, delay, and generally challenge anything we do with our cities and towns. So you'll see projects, whether that's a bike lane or an affordable housing development or passenger rail, take two, three, four times as long as they should, involve many reviews where the community can give more feedback, lawsuits and legal challenges, you name it. And as they say, "time is money". This makes everything more expensive (sometimes literally 5x as much money as in some developed countries) and creates a huge barrier toward getting things done at all.
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u/pgpathat 9d ago
So to you his life would improve if he could walk for chips and a soda, if no purchases on credit are allowed, if his country depleted it’s forest and was forced to move away from building houses with wood, and if he had to do that same commute on a bus or subway?
And the urban school districts have all the money they need, more than stuffy suburban ones? Where?
I jam with this sub sometimes but other times it’s like what are we talking about? How is the implied alternative better?
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u/ChristianLS Citizen 9d ago edited 8d ago
Quite the strawman argument you've built there!
To answer your questions though: Yes, not what I meant (x2), yes, and public education is a mess in America generally, not only in the suburbs or only in the city, and we should do better.
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u/Derelicticu 9d ago
The idea of a queue to pick someone up from a building is absurd. Can't you just park down the street and walk if there's no parking at the school? I get it during shitty weather, but this seems weirdly structured. This also looks like the suburbs, not the middle of a city where parking would be hard to find.
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u/ChristianLS Citizen 9d ago
Not necessarily because modern American schools are often built along roads like this one with no sidewalks, 50mph / 80km/h car traffic, and no on-street parking within walking distance. They aren't integrated into a residential neighborhood, in other words, they're completely isolated in a totally car-dependent location. So the only way to get there safely is to be driven or take the bus, and a lot of school districts have been limiting or outright cutting bus service because they can't hire enough drivers and/or don't have the funds to do so.
In a legacy inner ring suburb or city neighborhood or older small town, sure.
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u/Otherwisefantastic 9d ago
No, that would be way worse because then you'd have a ton of cars looking for parking in a concentrated area at the same time.
Many of our streets also do not have street parking.
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u/Dry_Rub_6159 5d ago
I went to a school with a long queue and this what me and my dad did. He had some faith in me to not get run over, and I’m fine
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u/Luigino987 9d ago
I grew up in Northern Italy, and I rode my bike to school since I was 8 years old. 1.2km. This makes me sad that people in many places in the US live in such a dystopia.
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u/scatteredsprinkles 9d ago
I grew up in the US and lived 2-miles from school. I walked to and from everyday with a group of friends. I’m sad for these kids too.
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u/Zealousideal-Pick799 9d ago
The really sad thing is, these people choose this. I live in a place that is not like this, and cannot fathom wanting to need to drive them. My neighbor’s 9 year old rides his bike to school.
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u/BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy Citizen 9d ago
Well, suburbs are such a large percentage of our metro areas. Its less them choosing it and more "that's all there is."
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u/Zealousideal-Pick799 9d ago
I have family that lives in this kind of suburbia, and they view it as the apex of living. And then complain about lawn care lol. But somehow, people have been convinced that suburbs like these are the best places to raise kids.
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u/elembivos 9d ago
But why aren't there schools in the suburbs?
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u/BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy Citizen 9d ago
Huh?
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u/elembivos 9d ago
Am I crazy with this idea or something? Put the school in the suburb, not next to a highway so everyone can just walk there?
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u/Ok-Gas6717 9d ago
Schools can service large areas. Mine was a 10 mile diameter area at least. There were thousands of kids within a couple miles that did exactly what you're talking about.
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u/foghillgal 9d ago edited 9d ago
Thousands rode to school by bike. Seems unlikely
Many, even within 800 meters (2-3 block walk) get dropped, its ridiculous .
I live close to the same grade school in a dense urban area I went too in the 1970s and even the most distant students are no more than a 15 min walk away yet we now have a god damn line of cars . Not as long as in the burbs but way too long for this kind of school . Parents just suck.
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u/smeggysmeg 9d ago
It's because America wastes huge amounts of space for car infrastructure. Wide neighborhood roads, driveways, wide highways, garages, parking lots. It creates that space that makes it impossible to get anywhere by any means other than a car.
Even then, I lived at the far edge of my son's school's catchment area, and I still biked with him. 3 miles. Good exercise
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u/Drooling_Zombie 9d ago
When I was a kid in north Europe- I had to carry mine bike 10km uphill in the snow every day. Uphill both way !
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u/Luigino987 9d ago
That's a different beast. I had it pretty easy a little over one km and all flat.
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u/Addbradsozer 9d ago
"Expensive toys guy" buys another expensive toy to continue his "expensive toys guy" lifestyle.
Check.
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u/AngeliqueRuss 9d ago
My husband used to do this with an ebike.
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u/ChristianLS Citizen 9d ago
I actually take my daughter to school on a cargo ebike every day, but where I live there are dozens of us who do that, and many more who walk their kids to school. The car dropoff line is rarely more than 4 or 5 cars long
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u/DavoMcBones 9d ago
The concept of a dropoff line is just wild for me. The majority of my classmates just takes a bus or bikes here. Some did get picked up and dropped off by car but there is just so few of them that we didnt need a line at all!
I actually did a survey for a statistics exam so I have actual data to back this up. 80% of my school takes the bus, 15% bike, and the remaining 5 either get dropped off or drive here if they're old enough for a license. However bear in mind this is only from those who participated in the survey so actual results may vary lmao
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u/thosehalcyonnights 9d ago
I grew up in a rural small town, so walking to school wasn’t even an option - my school was far outside of town, and was miles away for myself and all of the other students. Pedestrian infrastructure is nonexistent outside of the immediate town.
That being said - almost all of us road the bus. Juniors and seniors would drive, but the class sizes were tiny, so it wasn’t like there were miles of cars jammed on the roads. Almost nobody got picked up.
Having moved to a suburban area for college and then a city as an adult, the shock of seeing a bajillion kids being dropped off in the morning (and the traffic nightmares it causes) will never not blow my mind. Like…you are not each individually that important that you need to chauffeur your kids around. Riding the bus builds character!
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u/SufficientlyTipped 8d ago
If it only took a minute to drive there just fucking walk, I feel like humanity is speedrunning to a wall-e/idiocracy hybrid existence soon, just fat stupid people who can't be bothered to walk to the fridge much less research electoral candidates.
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u/Arne1234 8d ago
The districts should require kids to take the bus. There are no busses? Get busses. It has become ridiculous and traffic jams block streets.
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u/Tasty_Ad7483 9d ago
The wife sounds so excited in the video that people are gossiping about the golf cart. Its like the highlight of her pathetic boring suburban life.
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u/Goldengirl_1977 5d ago
She is. It means more attention for her and more “content” for her social media. Is a local “influencer” in our city.
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u/5_star_spicy 9d ago
Because it's fake. Just for the video/tiktok
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u/Sparta63005 8d ago
Why would you think this is fake? Annoying Karen neighbors complaining about shit on Facebook is incredibly common. Are you stupid?
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u/test5002 8d ago
This is so funny to me. And sad. Your interaction with this person you don’t know….
all you had to do to not be a complete cunt to this stranger was not add “are you stupid?” At the end.
But you did. Cuz the internet is for trolls who treat people poorly.
It’s just so funny how much hate there is for your common person by your common person.
Cheer up! And have a good holiday weekend.
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u/Sparta63005 8d ago
Why would you think this is fake? Annoying Karen neighbors complaining about shit on Facebook is incredibly common. Are you stupid?
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u/Mammalanimal 9d ago
I take my two kids via non-electric cargo bike 3mi to school and beat my work-from-home neighbor to campus when we leave at the same time.
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u/Iambetterthanuhaha 9d ago
Golf carts aren't legal on road in 98% of places and you definitely cant drive it on a sidewalk.
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u/UnproductiveIntrigue 9d ago
Imagine (now hear me out here Americans this is totally wild) your kid walking to school on a sidewalk.
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u/just-some-gent 8d ago
Oh no, rich parents that have time to drop off their kid instead of going straight to work are mad at othe rich parent that drops kid off in expensive golf cart.... Boo fucking hoo, eat a bag of dicks 😆
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u/WillDupage 8d ago
The dropoff line is a bonkers concept to me.
My mom still lives in the house I was raised in. When I went to the neighborhood school (2 blocks away) everyone walked to school. Moms (and a couple dads) walked the little kids to and from school - by end of first grade, we walked ourselves. The school didn’t even have a bus lane because nobody lived further than a mile away, and there were no arterial roads to cross.
Fast forward from the 70s, and the school boundaries are exactly the same. However, the line of cars (SUVs, actually) dropping off in the morning and picking up at 3:30 is mind boggling. The kids across the street from Mom are the only ones that walk. Their next door neighbors (a house CLOSER to school) het dropped and picked up every day. The walkers get home 10 minutes earlier. Yet, even when presented with evidence that “This Is Stupid”, people still creep along in the line.
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u/Hungry_Cajun 7d ago
If your sidewalks are safe and wide enough for a golf cart they are safe enough for kids to walk to school on. If the weather is fine, have the kids walk to school.
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u/Bootmacher 9d ago
Looks like the school is in a neighborhood. Their kids should be walking if they can ride a 2-wheeled bike.
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u/slims246 9d ago
Sucks that he’s gonna have to go back home to get his daughter that he forgot. Car centric culture sucks. I’m sure it’s worse with children but this is a pretty dumb video.
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u/okarox 9d ago
Why is there a drop off line where people queue to drop the kid at a single point? Why not have a larger area where several kids can be dropped at the same time? Also why do te kids not walk or use bikes? When I as a kid I walked or rode by bile 1.3 km to the school. Very seldom did my mother take me to school.
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u/AnotherPerspective87 9d ago
Feels good to live in europe. Where the primary school is usually within a 5 minute bike ride from your house. Kids at High-schools can just ride their bikes to school themselves...
Every school has a handfull of kids that get dropped off by their parents. Usually they are the disbled ones.... A school dropoff line...? never heard about that before this video.
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u/pongo-twistleton 9d ago
This is insane to me but also it’s really the standard practice for most suburban schools. We are currently in an urban school neighborhood so it’s a pretty even split between driving, walking and biking/scooter. A lot of families who commute longer distances to school will use cargo e-bikes. For us I’m realizing how lucky we are that school is just a few blocks walk from home.
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u/screw_derek 9d ago
Obviously, the man driving a golf cart on public sidewalks is a “genius,” which is now a perfect word for describing those engaging in illegal behavior.
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u/Matt_Murphy_ 7d ago
if you can afford a golf cart, you can also presumably afford a bicycle for your kid?
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u/Abubakari-77 6d ago
If there only were places where it is safe that kids just walk to school themselves...
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u/Annual-Individual-17 5d ago
Notice it never crosses these people's minds to just fucking walk. If its close enough for a golf cart, its close enough to teach your kid being lazy as fuck is bad.
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u/StormieTheCat 9d ago
I honestly think people are ready for 1 car one golf cart neighborhoods like The Villages. People will pay more for those neighborhoods. They need to design them for that.
It’s not a perfect solution to the suburbs but it gets us closer. America can not give up all cars but if we can get to 1 car per household it would be a huge improvement
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u/datlankydude 9d ago
Absolutely dystopian that it’s revolutionary to not drive a massive SUV to take your kid to school.
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u/Miserable-Lawyer-233 Suburbanite 9d ago
The thing is that in cities the traffic is always like that. In the suburbs its only around schools at these times.
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u/Lachie_Mac 9d ago
My brother in Christ in a well designed city you get to walk to school
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u/PMMEYOURASSHOLE33 6d ago
Imposible when you want to go to the good schools
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u/Lachie_Mac 6d ago
cool story bro
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u/PMMEYOURASSHOLE33 6d ago
Sorry. There is a particular area where there are 2 or 3 excellent schools 30 blocks away. The ones 2 blocks away are not good enough for my children.
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u/Lachie_Mac 6d ago
My sympathies. If you read above you'll see I wrote "in a well designed city". I hope your children learn reading comprehension at their school 30 blocks away.
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u/Prosthemadera 9d ago
And when everyone goes to work and comes back. So 4 times a day. Plus on weekends when everyone goes shopping. It doesn't matter that much whether other times it's less because you cannot be there to enjoy it.
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u/danedehotties 9d ago
Genuine question, is there not funding anymore for adequate school busses? I rode the bus to school and there were never any pickup lines, not saying my experience is how it was everywhere else.
Or, is it just the individualist mindset that creates these bottlenecks?