Mon 8 Sep 2008
This morning, as I was completing my run, I was forced to go around three cars (lights on, engines running) parked in the bike lane in a no-parking zone. About ten feet down the street was a clump of parents and children waiting for the bus.
Thought #1: Who DRIVES to the bus stop? (Note: this is not a rural area where someone would have to walk two miles from his or her farm to R.R.#3 or similar.)
Thought #2: If you’re willing to take the trouble of driving two tenths of a mile to the bus stop, why not travel the extra 1.2 miles and drop your kid off at school?
Thought #3: Even if you’re so lazy that you would only drive two blocks and no farther, couldn’t you park about 20 yards down the street from the bus stop in one of the many spots that are open on 7:00 a.m. and WALK THE REST OF THE WAY?
September 8th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Maybe they are folks with mobility issues? There are plenty of people out there with disabilities, including disabilities that are not easily seen by outsiders (e.g. chronic fatigue syndrome). It may be that those folks need to drive to the bus stop, and yes, even need to drive those last 20 feet, in order to have energy to do the other essential parts of their day.
I’m sorry they were in your way though.
September 9th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Drivers own the road in this city and walkers/runners must be on the defense. I have a bit more empathy for parents who want to get their kids safely to the bus after witnessing a horrific site less than 24 hours ago. In a crosswalk I use every day, a young lady (20s) was crossing and a driver plowed into her - her head hit and cracked his windshield and her DD coffee flew clear across the street. My father asked if I shouldn’t park in another parking lot, get a $10 ticket every 3 hours but be safe(r) from having to cross this “highway” several times a day. By the way, the speed limit is 25 mph and the crosswalk is clearly marked.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Gahhh! Getting plowed over in that crosswalk is my second-biggest fear, trumped only by getting plowed over at the OTHER intersection.
Well, I don’t really have any problem with people driving to the bus stop–I found it amusing more than outrageous. I was a little irritated by parking in the bike lane, not because I had to go around (I was running for the exercise, after all) but because bikes AND THE SCHOOL BUS also had to go around them. I have sympathy for anyone with disability issues, “obvious” or not, although I think even disabled people are not allowed to park in no-parking zones. (Also doubt that all three families at the bus stop had disabled members.)
September 9th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
We always walk to the bus, but everyone else in the neighborhood drives. One parent is on his way to work. Two others would have to walk back up a big hill after they dropped off their kids. Everyone is cutting it pretty close, or else getting there so early that they want someplace to sit while waiting.
Like I said, we walk — and we do live in a sort of vaguely spread-out rurally development.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Am I the only one who is most horrified about the emissions and gas waste from all that idling?
If you’re going to park, for goodness sakes, PARK! It’s September, folks, not January in Green Bay!
For the record, we walk to my daughter’s kindergarten, unless I’m rushing from one school to the other because the wise public school system has the kindergarten letting out at the exact same time as the public preschool three miles away. We’re just close enough that it would be embarrassing to drive and far enough that my younger son is whiny and exhausted by the time we walk his sister to school, run home, and get in the car to drive to preschool.