this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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Because they stand next to the bus and wait in a line to get on while inhaling the fumes.
Are you saying school busses in the US are like a fog rolling into town or something? Because I'm having a hard time picturing how kids can have enough exposure to diesel fumes the way you described it works or how petrol fumes aren't an even bigger issue since they are waiting near a car road. Also having regular busses would reduce petrol and diesel fumes they breath in while waiting anyways if it works the way you describe.
What is 'enough' exposure to diesel fumes?
Enough to be harmful. Humans get exposed to dangerous things every single day, even if you don't leave the house, it's just in a quantity to not effect you during a human lifespan.
And you know it is not enough to affect children how? Have you done a study? Because the National Institute of Health here in the U.S. did.
It's 2 decades old so I hope the US has gotten better busses in the meantime because modern busses don't have this issue:
"The study showed that a child riding inside a diesel school bus may be exposed to as much as 4 times the level of diesel exhaust as someone riding in a car ahead of it."
The level of harm in that study was around 30 potential extra cases of cancer per million kids, that is fairly low considering the harm added by just general exhaust fumes for those living near busy roads. Even the study itself shows that living near a road frequented by trucks is more harmful.
So my suggestion of just get public transit would be better remains mostly resolute, I would just add that use trains for cargo and not trucks.
Ok... how is a kid living on a farm 10 miles from the main road and 20 miles from city limits going to get on public transit?
Stick a bus stop somewhere in walking distance and run that route based on need. Like my parents live on a farm about 6km out of town and there's a bus stop right near the house that bus goes twice per day and adults can ride it too.
Where in walking distance? We have miles of unpaved road here with few homes on them and acres of farmland. I don't think you understand just how large the U.S. is.
If you live like 4 hours from the nearest settlement then you're fucked either way, school bus or not but those people are in the vast minority everywhere in the world. Walking distance is around 30 minutes on foot in my opinion. Busses work on gravel road, the road in front of my parents house was gravel until recently.
You're not fucked if the school bus, which is required by law to go to you, goes to you. Which is how it is now.
And it was -20 F / -28 C here a few days ago. You expect a six-year-old to take a 30-minute walk in that weather? Really?
If your kid needs 8 hours per day of commuting that should be some form of child abuse, school bus or no.
Here school is canceled for -20C for under 9th grade and -25C for higher in rural areas, that seems like a fair policy. Though I have walked to school at -25C in 3th grade I think and back because I didnt check the temperature, and that was walking about 40 minutes one way. It was fine, you just need proper clothing and if you live in these cold regions you know that.
Sorry... it's child abuse to live on a farm and have children?
It's child abuse to make your kid spend 8 hours of their day every work day on a bus. If you live in the ass end of nowhere find a better way to educate your kids, it's the price you pay for living away from civilization, like if I choose to live on top of a mountain I won't be expecting the postal service to climb 3 million steps to get to me.
Okay, how many hours a day should a child spend on a bus before they need to be taken away from their parents? And does that time include the time it would take for a six-year-old to walk down a gravel road in arctic weather?
The same amount a school bus or a regular bus needs to get you to school.
That's not a number of hours. You said four hours each way was child abuse. So how many hours does a child have to walk and ride a bus before it is child abuse?
Not sure why you hold my opinion on that in such high regard as it doesn't matter but I would say the commute by bus shouldn't be over an hour one way and the walk to the bus station shouldn't be longer than 30 minutes. That would be my ideal at least if I was making any rules.
Got it. My wife was abused and should have been taken away from her mother. She had a 90-minute bus ride, but she didn't have to walk through arctic temperatures because the bus was required by law to stop outside her house.
I'll let her know that her mother was terribly abusive to her and cut off all contact with her granddaughter.
Yea, you do that buddy.
Public transit would still be the superior choice to school busses.
Right, because public transit is required by law to stop at every child's house like a schoolbus. And it would take the same amount or more time because, and I'm not sure you know this, distances don't get shorter if you use public transit instead of school buses. So I guess kids on public transit are abused too.
Did I ever claim regular busses are faster? They are better because more people can use them, thus lowering the amount of cars on the road which reduces pollution more while not losing much or any utility for kids getting to school.
You seem weirdly upset with the off-hand comment I made that a 8 hour commute every work day would be child abuse. I'm not sure if long commutes cured your cancer or something but chill.
Huh. Why would I find a comment suggesting children should be taken away from their parents due to long bus ride times to be objectionable?
I can't imagine...