Why not give away bicycles?
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:00 am
I have been listening to an audiobook since I got it free for subscribing: "$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better" by Christopher Steiner.
I originally started reading it last year some time but I was too cheap to buy it. So being able to get it for free was right in my price range and I can always cancel my subscription to Audible.
So anyway, the book mentions how too many school districts have had to increase the distance kids have to travel before they are allowed to be bussed to school because the price of diesel had gotten too expensive. One district saw fuel go up 50%; one district budgets $4 million for fuel and they've used that much in 9 months.
So I thought of something. Why don't they eliminate busing altogether except for a very narrow class of kids, and just teach them all how to ride a bicycle, then give them a bicycle for use during the school year, the same way they give kids textbooks?
Kids would get exercise, the school districts could drastically reduce the cost of student transport, and we'd use less energy. Hell, I was a fat kid and when I was in San Diego going to school I had to walk a bike part way (steep hill) but coming home I coasted almost all of the trip back. Plus I had the bicycle for other uses when I made short trips.
I remember how I learned to ride a bike. My mother and I went to a second-hand store, we picked one out, and I tried balancing on it while more-or-less walking home. I think it was 5 miles. I fell down a few times while learning. By the time we got home, I more-or-less knew how to ride a bike.
Man, those were the days; you just got on and rode. No pads, no safety gear, no helmet, nothing was required except the $2 fee for the California state license sticker. It would probably be even less dangerous now the way they bundle up kids to allow them to ride.
Just restrict busing to kids who can't ride a bicycle or ones too far to commute by bike (say, more than 5 or 10 miles). Would probably cut out 90% of the cost of operating the school bus system. If you figure, a typical bike sells for $120 and the biggest expense is a kid outgrows it each year (which suits the school district, since it goes on to the next kid) if it lasts 3 years (and a bicycle is steel, it's going to last longer than that), it's costing $40 a year and has no ongoing expense (bicycles don't eat petroleum to operate; school buses do.)
I originally started reading it last year some time but I was too cheap to buy it. So being able to get it for free was right in my price range and I can always cancel my subscription to Audible.
So anyway, the book mentions how too many school districts have had to increase the distance kids have to travel before they are allowed to be bussed to school because the price of diesel had gotten too expensive. One district saw fuel go up 50%; one district budgets $4 million for fuel and they've used that much in 9 months.
So I thought of something. Why don't they eliminate busing altogether except for a very narrow class of kids, and just teach them all how to ride a bicycle, then give them a bicycle for use during the school year, the same way they give kids textbooks?
Kids would get exercise, the school districts could drastically reduce the cost of student transport, and we'd use less energy. Hell, I was a fat kid and when I was in San Diego going to school I had to walk a bike part way (steep hill) but coming home I coasted almost all of the trip back. Plus I had the bicycle for other uses when I made short trips.
I remember how I learned to ride a bike. My mother and I went to a second-hand store, we picked one out, and I tried balancing on it while more-or-less walking home. I think it was 5 miles. I fell down a few times while learning. By the time we got home, I more-or-less knew how to ride a bike.
Man, those were the days; you just got on and rode. No pads, no safety gear, no helmet, nothing was required except the $2 fee for the California state license sticker. It would probably be even less dangerous now the way they bundle up kids to allow them to ride.
Just restrict busing to kids who can't ride a bicycle or ones too far to commute by bike (say, more than 5 or 10 miles). Would probably cut out 90% of the cost of operating the school bus system. If you figure, a typical bike sells for $120 and the biggest expense is a kid outgrows it each year (which suits the school district, since it goes on to the next kid) if it lasts 3 years (and a bicycle is steel, it's going to last longer than that), it's costing $40 a year and has no ongoing expense (bicycles don't eat petroleum to operate; school buses do.)