Give it up JW. Reading comprenhension apparently sucks today.

herrDrFarkenstein: Looked at Google Maps. She could bke safely over to 56th and cross the interstate on an overpass. Sidewalks all the way. There are city streets running over/under the interstate in several spots.

No neighborhood kids want to carpool? No friends to walk with?

The mom responds in the comments that all the other kids her daughter's age that are nearby are able to ride the bus as they are outside the 2 mile limit or they don't attend the school (do they have charter schools in Des Moines?)

I looked at the map and it looks like they are five blocks from the edge of the school district, and according the article, three blocks south of the 2 mile limit which probably puts them in a sliver of no man's land that no one wants to deal with.

Our school district has a dangerous exception (they either bus or have a crossing guard). One high school is so poorly positioned past busy roads that they bus everybody. Despite that, they still had a seven year old die in traffic a few years ago.

Couldn't she walk 3 block the other direction and catch a bus there??

FizixJunkee: DarkVader: FizixJunkee: Abner Doon: I wonder if she considered dropping Madison at the school just before her job starts at 7 a.m. and picking her up after she gets off at 4 p.m.

/ who needs editors

School won't allow it.

Our neighborhood school has a similar policy. There's a very tiny window in which you can drop off your kid in the mornings and an equally narrow window for picking him/her up. The school will NOT allow you to drop them off any earlier, even if they're playing outside and aren't inside the building.

So drop the kid off a block away, and tell the school the kid is walking. Problem solved.

They won't let your kid on school premises before that designated time. They won't let them just play on the playground until school starts, which is what we did when we were kids.

Yeah, well. See how farked up you and I became? Maybe they have a point in changing things up a bit :)

lemortede: Once again we have someone who expects society to take care of her problems with her crotch fruit. Parent up and take care of your own mistakes.

Yeah, how dare she not personally install all the needed sidewalk and pick up the interstate bare-handed to move it out of her daughter's way!

Well if she gets killed on the way to school they'll just name an over pass for her or paint her name in all sorts of pretty rainbow colors ON THE SCHOOL BUS THEY SHOULD HAVE PROVIDED FOR HER!

"It's boiling down to me having to move. But I'm renting a house,


Uhhhhhhh

What kind of school is open to students only from 7-3?

My HS had class that long, let alone time for transportation/sports. There were days that I was in at 5AM for swim, and nights that I didn't leave until 6 (also for swim...)

Fark_Guy_Rob: AssAsInAssassin: Fark_Guy_Rob: The 'dangerous' road has traffic signals and an overpass. The distance she has to travel is less than 1.5 miles.

All of the other children living 1.5 miles away face the same dangerous from the elements. When it's too cold for school, public school shut down. They consider the safety of children when deciding when to shut down the school.

There is no reason for her kid to be bussed. None of the other kids in similar situations are.

Solutions that don't required interaction from the tax payers
1.) Teach your child to cross the street safely and invest in the same cold weather gear your child would need in the winter if she had to walk to a bus stop and wait in the cold.

2.) Arrange your child's transportation yourself. You know, drive your kid to school. Pay someone else to drive your kid to school. Arrange a car pool with other parents.

3.) Move/Consider your children's ability to get to school BEFORE deciding on a place to live. Real estate agents love that crap - and it's pretty easy to see where public schools are on maps. You didn't get assigned a place to live, you choose it. Choose it better.

Solution that requires the least amount of effort
1.) biatch about it until the busses go out of their way to get your snowflake.

Know how I know you didn't read TFA?

Probably because your mistakenly making assumptions.

Not only did I read the article, I took the time to pull up Google Street view and look at the dangerous highway crossing. Not only does the street have sidewalks on both sides of the road; there are traffic lights to make crossing incredibly easy.

The distance rule is school policy. It's fine for everyone else, it's fine for this kid.
The 'danger' of that road is non-existent.

What exactly has led you to believe I haven't read the article. Are you disagreeing with anything I've actually said? Or are we just guessing random things about each other.

'Know how I know your favorite colour isn't red? ...

Well, your comments like "drive your kid to school" show very poor reading comprehension.

The mother never mentioned weather as a concern.

In fact, FTFA: "It's not just that her daughter, Madison, would have to make the round-trip trek every school day from Windsor Heights to Merrill Middle School. Nor that the girl will likely have to do so on some days when frostbite is a threat. It's that Madison will have to find some way to get across Interstate Highway 235 from a high-traffic area near her home on 64th Street on the west side."

The portion of the Google map you posted doesn't show the utter lack of sidewalks going across the 235 corridor, which is the mother's entire concern.

You made up your mind about the "precious snowflake" before you read TFA and now you're trying to pretend you actually formed that opinion after careful analysis.

Not buyin' it.

NUKE FROM ORBIT! GLASS PARKING LOT! LOL!11
/amidoinitright?

I don't really care who's at fault here or how it gets resolved.

But I do know that if I had a nickel for everyone in this thread saying HURRRRRR JUST WALK YOU LAZY SNOWFLAKE, minus a dollar for everyone saying that who'd actually walked 1.35 miles at one time in the past week, I'd still make a profit.

AssAsInAssassin: the utter lack of sidewalks going across the 235 corridor




Red arrows = sidewalks
Blue circles = crosswalks

/Yellow moons = Lucky Charms

whyRpeoplesostupid: In MY day we crossed 8 lanes of interstate traffic in the dark and we smiled, and we liked it
[i196.photobucket.com image 600x399]

man, you oldies all sound like masochists.

to quote a former classmate; "if it were that difficult for me, I just wouldn't go."

I live four blocks from my kids school but since we have to cross a busy street, he is allowed to ride the bus. My son is ten and I wouldn't let him walk to school. No friggin' way. I was fine with it, back in the 70's, but these days.......no.

fredklein: AssAsInAssassin: the utter lack of sidewalks going across the 235 corridor

[naimalett.com image 360x270]

[img18.imageshack.us image 384x800]
Red arrows = sidewalks
Blue circles = crosswalks

/Yellow moons = Lucky Charms

SideWALKs. Not paint stripes that do nothing to keep drivers from killing pedestrians.

Keep clinging to your perverse need to misrepresent legitimate parental concerns as an absurd "precious snowflake" trope. I know how important it is to you to believe that crap. It's so much easier than thinking.

If she lives three blocks from the 2 mile mark, have her walk three blocks in the other direction to the nearest bus stop, problem solved. That's what my kids used to do.

ReapTheChaos: If she lives three blocks from the 2 mile mark, have her walk three blocks in the other direction to the nearest bus stop, problem solved. That's what my kids used to do.

READ THE FARKIN' ARTICLE! JESUS!!!

MORAN!!1!

AssAsInAssassin: SideWALKs

Which those raised areas along the side of the road, everywhere except in the actual intersections that have traffic lights, that he labelled as sidewalks most definitely are not.

Notice in the picture above that all those crossings are right across onramps and offramps? Perfect places to get squished by morons speeding in winter when the streets are slick. The mom is right. This is too dangerous.

I also walked 3 miles to school as a kid. But I didn't have to play frogger like that.

/Left the Midwest. Place was built by morons and made impossible to navigate safely without a car.
//Moved to the Northeast. My snowflake will be walking 2.5 miles. Along streets where prevailing speeds are under 25 MPH. With sidewalks and safe crossings at every block.

No, really, the biggest threat to your crotchfruit really is getting squished by a moron in an SUV. Not pervs. Idiot drivers.

dywed88: AssAsInAssassin: SideWALKs

Which those raised areas along the side of the road, everywhere except in the actual intersections that have traffic lights, that he labelled as sidewalks most definitely are not.

If you cannot understand how to cross an intersection with huge painted lanes and blinking lights that say "WALK" and "DO NOT WALK" then regular school isn't the place for you and there's a short bus which WILL take you to class.

/ It stops right in front of your house!
// You can count on it!!
/// Count to potato!!!

If they aren't allowed at school before 7 then drop her off across the street before 7. Or see if you can pay another parent to carpool the kids. This sounds like maybe a 20 min walk and her kid is 11 not 5. Maybe this route is littered with spikes and landmines but I doubt it.

And this shiat made the paper? Cry me a river.

Thank God she has enough money for tattoos, but not enough for bus fare or a bicycle.

AssAsInAssassin: SideWALKs. Not paint stripes that do nothing to keep drivers from killing pedestrians.

Again, what are you talking about? The sidewalks in that area are either standard sidewalks, separated from the road by a curb and ~3' of grass:



Or, on the bridges themselves, separated by a ~2' curb/wall:

Good thing the DMPS has funneled all that cash into ESL classes, eliminating the TAG program at certain schoosl, and bus kids from other sides of town in the name of diversity. Not to mention the bloated admin roles.

jaytkay: dywed88: AssAsInAssassin: SideWALKs

Which those raised areas along the side of the road, everywhere except in the actual intersections that have traffic lights, that he labelled as sidewalks most definitely are not.

If you cannot understand how to cross an intersection with huge painted lanes and blinking lights that say "WALK" and "DO NOT WALK" then regular school isn't the place for you and there's a short bus which WILL take you to class.

/ It stops right in front of your house!
// You can count on it!!
/// Count to potato!!!

As both a person who has been hit crossing with the walk signal and a driver who avoids early teens crossing a six lane road every morning, I'm not getting a kick from your reply.

There's a bike path which takes her almost the whole route.....

I had the same problem in Iowa City. My two kids would have had to cross a busy highway, then walk along a very busy street, then cross railroad tracks to get to school. Total distance of about 1 mile or so. Of course, we could have paid almost $700 per year, per kid to let them ride the bus. I was able to drop them off on my way to work, and their dad picked them up in the afternoon. No problem there.

However, the welfare kids living two houses from me got to ride the bus (that stopped at my driveway, by the way) to the SAME school for FREE.

FAIL tag is for both the school district's transportation policies and the city's inability to provide complete streets.

CruiserTwelve: Buy the kid a bicycle.

Roads like what this kid would have to deal with are intimidating for a 30-year-old Fred like myself to negotiate. An 11 year old would have no chance to survive.

The English Major: CruiserTwelve: Buy the kid a bicycle.

If there were sidewalksbicycle facilities on the whole 1.35 miles, that would be the solution, but since it's mostly road it does nothing but make her a road hazard and would screw up rush hour something fierce.

Iowa considers sidewalks a pedestrian-only facility prohibiting bicycles, as do most states.

fredklein: AssAsInAssassin: the utter lack of sidewalks going across the 235 corridor

[naimalett.com image 360x270]

[img18.imageshack.us image 384x800]
Red arrows = sidewalks
Blue circles = crosswalks

/Yellow moons = Lucky Charms

If it's anything like Murray and US 26 in Portland, or really, any expressway intersection in Tulsa, the signals are universally ignored, doubly so if the pedestrian signal is lunar.

robbiex0r: There's a bike path which takes her almost the whole route.....

Bike path?! You want to turn this poor kid into some kind of eco-hippie communist?! NOBODY ASKED FOR YOUR SOCIALIST OPINION!

Umm... I drive through 63rd and University every day. That intersection has crossing guards on all four corners in the morning and afternoon, and it is a controlled.

There is a sidewalk across the bridge on the west side of 56th to cross the interstate you can clearly see on Google Maps:

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=56th+street+des+moines& i e=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x87ee9e8e732d68ad:0xf15cd442926dcc62,56th+St,+Des+M oines,+IA&gl=us&ei=fo3fT-nEDsLi2QW69v3PCA&ved=0CAwQ8gEwAA

(There are no ramps on that side of the bridge either)

The MTA has bus stops all over around 63rd and University; Some literally within 600 feet of each other. A student bus pass is something like $60.00 dollars PER YEAR. Is the kid disabled and needs "Dart On call"? Ive only ever seen blind and handicapped people using that service.

I'm not sure why this is in the news.