Any stats on average travel time to school? What is reasonable?

[Anonymous]

As someone who went to a rural high school, I'm genuinely surprised and confused to see so many people here with the reaction that a 20-30 minute trip to high school is unreasonable and unfair. I'm curious, is this the typical perception in MCPS? Do most people currently have a much shorter trip to school than that? Are there any stats on this? (Commute time, distance, and/or what share of kids are walkers vs bus riders?)

It's just kind of puzzling to me, because my elementary schooler has a 10-15 minute bus ride (5 minute drive by car) and no one has acted like that's a big deal-- I kind of assumed 10-15 minutes for elementary, 15-20 for middle, 20-30 for high school all seemed pretty normal. And I know people with kids at magnets that go even longer. With that combined with my experience growing up, my personal gut reaction doesn't start feeling like "that's a long trip to school" until you hit 40 minutes or so each way.

I also don't fully understand how the shorter commutes would even work for most folks-- I mean, there will always be some houses a half-mile or less where kids can walk to school in under 10 minutes, but beyond that, walking quickly gets into the 15-20 minute range or more. How long is a typical bus ride for kids in the 2-4 mile range away from their schools-- is it faster than I think? And then of course driving would be fastest, but you'd have to either have parents who are willing and able to drive you both ways or to have your own car, neither of which seems likely to be true of most MCPS students, right?

Clearly there is some disconnect, but am I the one who needs to adjust my thinking? Do most Montgomery County kids really get to school in 10 minutes or less and so making it, say, 25 or 30 minutes is genuinely considered unfair and not a reasonable thing to ask of people around here?

[Anonymous]

I think the issue for this area that may not have happened for your rural school is traffic.

So if the school is 20 minutes away by car, that could mean 40 min during morning rush hour and 60 minutes on a bus with multiple stops.

Our HS is 2 miles away and the bus takes 20 minutes (about 10 of which is traffic delays.)

Also, people reasonably get annoyed when there is a much closer school that they are not zoned for.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you need to adjust your thinking and assumptions. What made sense 30-40 years ago in your rural area is not really applicable to densely populated areas in 2025 for a variety of reasons. Just as typical work hours and commutes in this area are wildly different from certain other places in the country and also different from what they were when we were kids.

Also, since you sound like you only have one elementary schooler you may not realize that high school start times are very early and teens are developmentally wired to have more difficulty waking up early compared to young children. Do you realize some of these high schoolers need to stand at bus stops or even walk up to 2 miles well before the sun even rises in the winter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue for this area that may not have happened for your rural school is traffic.

So if the school is 20 minutes away by car, that could mean 40 min during morning rush hour and 60 minutes on a bus with multiple stops.

Our HS is 2 miles away and the bus takes 20 minutes (about 10 of which is traffic delays.)

Also, people reasonably get annoyed when there is a much closer school that they are not zoned for.

Yes, understood-- when I refer to travel times, I mean actual real travel times in real conditions. So for your example at the top, if the bus ride takes 60 minutes I would call it a 60 minute bus ride (and one that's too long to be acceptable), I wouldn't call it a 20 minute one just because that's how fast you can get there in a car in no traffic.

So what I'm asking is whether it is generally considered uncommon and unreasonable for kids to have to travel 20-30 actual minutes each way to their school by bus (or on foot), in practice. Not whether it's unreasonable to have a "20 minute commute" that in reality is actually a 40 or 60 minute commute-- I agree that is unreasonable (unless freely chosen to get to a magnet, and even then 60 minutes seems like a lot.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue for this area that may not have happened for your rural school is traffic.

So if the school is 20 minutes away by car, that could mean 40 min during morning rush hour and 60 minutes on a bus with multiple stops.

Our HS is 2 miles away and the bus takes 20 minutes (about 10 of which is traffic delays.)

Also, people reasonably get annoyed when there is a much closer school that they are not zoned for.

Yes, understood-- when I refer to travel times, I mean actual real travel times in real conditions. So for your example at the top, if the bus ride takes 60 minutes I would call it a 60 minute bus ride (and one that's too long to be acceptable), I wouldn't call it a 20 minute one just because that's how fast you can get there in a car in no traffic.

So what I'm asking is whether it is generally considered uncommon and unreasonable for kids to have to travel 20-30 actual minutes each way to their school by bus (or on foot), in practice. Not whether it's unreasonable to have a "20 minute commute" that in reality is actually a 40 or 60 minute commute-- I agree that is unreasonable (unless freely chosen to get to a magnet, and even then 60 minutes seems like a lot.)

Well, you can look up the MCPS bus routes and see. I would guess non-magnet routes are generally 20-40 minutes. They are designed to minimize number of buses, not get kids to school the most efficient way possible. So it will depend if you are the first stop or the last and if you live in a neighborhood where a bus will be full of kids in 2-3 stops or if it takes several stops to fill a bus.
Do most people consider this reasonable? I don't know. But if you are referring to the boundary study, yes people get upset at longer commutes, wouldn't you?

[Anonymous]

People have been working from home so anything more than a 10 second commute down the stairs is too much for them.

I’m a teacher with a 28-30 minute commute. I think it’s a perfectly reasonable commute time but I can’t tell you how many work from home people have commented about how long it is. It isn’t long! Everything is relative I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People have been working from home so anything more than a 10 second commute down the stairs is too much for them.

I’m a teacher with a 28-30 minute commute. I think it’s a perfectly reasonable commute time but I can’t tell you how many work from home people have commented about how long it is. It isn’t long! Everything is relative I guess.

I forgot to add that I drop my son off at his HS on the way around 6:50-7:00. His first class is at 8:20 and people think it’s terrible that I drop him off so early. Well, he can’t drive and we only have one car. I’m a single parent so he doesn’t have a choice about the time because I don’t have a choice about when I have to be at my school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People have been working from home so anything more than a 10 second commute down the stairs is too much for them.

I’m a teacher with a 28-30 minute commute. I think it’s a perfectly reasonable commute time but I can’t tell you how many work from home people have commented about how long it is. It isn’t long! Everything is relative I guess.

I forgot to add that I drop my son off at his HS on the way around 6:50-7:00. His first class is at 8:20 and people think it’s terrible that I drop him off so early. Well, he can’t drive and we only have one car. I’m a single parent so he doesn’t have a choice about the time because I don’t have a choice about when I have to be at my school.

Is he in some program? I thought HS starts earlier than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People have been working from home so anything more than a 10 second commute down the stairs is too much for them.

I’m a teacher with a 28-30 minute commute. I think it’s a perfectly reasonable commute time but I can’t tell you how many work from home people have commented about how long it is. It isn’t long! Everything is relative I guess.

I forgot to add that I drop my son off at his HS on the way around 6:50-7:00. His first class is at 8:20 and people think it’s terrible that I drop him off so early. Well, he can’t drive and we only have one car. I’m a single parent so he doesn’t have a choice about the time because I don’t have a choice about when I have to be at my school.

Oh god it's one of those I-have-it-bad-so-nobody-else-is-allowed-to-want-anything-better-for-themselves posts...

[Anonymous]

It’s not bad at all. Everyone else is lazy and has too much time to complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not bad at all. Everyone else is lazy and has too much time to complain.