Most Useful Bicycle Ever

As more and more parents choose to drop their kids off at school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon, roadways and carpool lanes become increasingly crowded. While there are some minor scheduling issues that can crop up as a result of the long lines of cars and ever-inflating wait times, there are also some serious hazards in play. Is there a way to stop the insanity of school drop-offs and pick-ups?

School Traffic - Hazards and Headaches

Whether it’s due to a lack of traditional school bus transport or a family scheduling preference, more than 30 million kids are riding to and from school with a parent every day. Most schools aren’t designed for this kind of traffic, and the result is long wait times, wasted gas, outraged neighbors and kids at risk from the pollution and hazards resulting from such a large volume of cars packed around the school. School officials are stressed, parents are annoyed and kids are bored.

In response to the growing crisis, some schools are designing traffic flow patterns by blocking off road access in certain places and creating a specialized carpool lane that is only available to parents during certain hours. This can help reduce wait times for some parents, but when parents are heading to the school from the “wrong” direction for the way the traffic flow is arranged, it creates additional headaches. Ultimately, this solution is not a perfect fix.

The fact is that the sheer volume of cars during pick-up and drop-off poses a hazard. It just takes one impatient adult behind the wheel to create a tragedy. School officials across North America are doing what they can, but parents need to be more proactive to really bring about an acceptable resolution to the nightmare of school traffic. Parents are the ones creating the traffic, ignoring posted signs and suggestions and driving the cars. They can also be the ones to reduce the traffic and get their kids to school safely, promptly and with minimal stress.

You can create a car pooling system or even better you ride your kids to school on an electric bike such as the Tern's GSD. You ride right in front of the doors drop-off your kids safely and zipping through traffic to work. The same way you will pick them up when school is finished. This is how the Europeans do since centuries and it works, why not just being smart and adapt? 

Think of them as pollution-free minivans that can carry much more than groceries. These guys can haul quite the load.