Are walking routes and times taken into account for determining walking zones?

[Anonymous]

I made some of these comments in the boundary threads but they probably got buried so wanted to bring it up in it's own thread.

Looking at the potential walking zones for high schools, according to Google Maps some walks will take forty to forty five minutes and along busy nonresidential commuter routes.

In board meetings, board members talk about how forty minute bus rides are not ideal.

I would think that a forty minute walk would be considered even worse. Where if kids are on a bus, they can at least just sit and enjoy the ride. But with walking, they need to carry their book bag, instrument, sports equipment in the heat, snow or rain.

I've seen instances where MCPS cancelled schools while kids were already at the bus stops. So kids walking to school would have already been on their way to school. And have seen kids slip and fall on their butts when walking on the sidewalks in the snow to school.

And even if kids ride their bike to school, it would be hard to carry everything on a bike and it's not really possible when there's snow and ice on the ground.

When determining walking zones, does MCPS take into account the route and time it would take to walk? And if they do, is forty minutes considered acceptable? Or do they just mostly count anything within a specified radius as the walking zone?

I know there are some areas for my kids school that gets bus service that are within two miles from the school. But I think the walking route doesn't have sidewalks and may be why they get bus service.

And I know, I know, in the old days people used to 5 to 10 miles, uphill, barefoot in the snow to school. But times are different now. With more traffic, more books and other school related things they carry, and kids just do different things then back then.

[Anonymous]

Generally its two miles but some have posted from their W schools, that its much less.

[Anonymous]

This came up from a Google search:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/boundary-analysis/interim-report/

The pdf for Proximity under Data Analysis talks about walking zones.

Based on a quick skim, walkshed might be the actual walking area determined by the radius from a school. But the actual walking zone might be smaller due to potential hazards or walkability. And they used a school in Bethesda as an example.

I don't think I see any dates to any of these documents but it mentions schools being closed due to the pandemic. So think that this was released around or shortly after then.

Also I don't think they really said anything about walking times, other than it might be variable due to traffic.

[Anonymous]

I am a snowflake mom, sorry I will not let my kids walk to school for 40 mins. I will find ways to drive and drop them off and pick them up either myself, carpool or find a service.

[Anonymous]

This is the student transportation policy. I don't see any references to walking times, but walking routes are mentioned as a factor.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/eea.pdf

[Anonymous]

I would so much rather have my kid get 40 minutes of exercise walking to school than sit on a bus.

I get the bus when it saves time, but walking is better when it’s an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a snowflake mom, sorry I will not let my kids walk to school for 40 mins. I will find ways to drive and drop them off and pick them up either myself, carpool or find a service.

I won’t either. But MCPS is using this ridiculous walking distance to justify rezoning us to another school which seems ridiculous. We’re 2.5 miles to current school and 2 mile to another school. It’s actually fast commute time (2-5 min less) to our current school due to traffic patterns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would so much rather have my kid get 40 minutes of exercise walking to school than sit on a bus.

I get the bus when it saves time, but walking is better when it’s an option.

You must not have a high school kid who has to get up so early to walk 40 min. They don’t get enough sleep already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a snowflake mom, sorry I will not let my kids walk to school for 40 mins. I will find ways to drive and drop them off and pick them up either myself, carpool or find a service.

I won’t either. But MCPS is using this ridiculous walking distance to justify rezoning us to another school which seems ridiculous. We’re 2.5 miles to current school and 2 mile to another school. It’s actually fast commute time (2-5 min less) to our current school due to traffic patterns.

Crazy.

Walk zones are whatever they choose to defend. We are 1 block from Bradley Hills and zoned to Wyngate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a snowflake mom, sorry I will not let my kids walk to school for 40 mins. I will find ways to drive and drop them off and pick them up either myself, carpool or find a service.

My issue with that then is what are you getting for your tax dollars then?

But I'm in a neighborhood that is currently getting bus service to a school with a ten minute or so ride but designated as a walking zone to another school. And it's about a 40 minute walk to that school.

So in my point of view is taking away services from our neighborhood that we previously had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would so much rather have my kid get 40 minutes of exercise walking to school than sit on a bus.

I get the bus when it saves time, but walking is better when it’s an option.

You must not have a high school kid who has to get up so early to walk 40 min. They don’t get enough sleep already.

I have 3 high schoolers. I don’t see why 40 minutes of walking would mean getting up earlier than a 40 minute bus ride, and early morning exercise in the sun is great for resetting the biological clock.

[Anonymous]

The answer is that wealthy parents drive/carpool kids that live 1.5-2 miles from their high school or advocate for buses on the basis that the walk is not "safe". And they disingenuously flip out at the possibility in the boundary options of their kids not being assigned to the "walkable" school they would never actually walk to. Other kids take the public buses or walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The answer is that wealthy parents drive/carpool kids that live 1.5-2 miles from their high school or advocate for buses on the basis that the walk is not "safe". And they disingenuously flip out at the possibility in the boundary options of their kids not being assigned to the "walkable" school they would never actually walk to. Other kids take the public buses or walk.

So MCPS should give up this stupid 2 mile walk zone policy and change to 1 mile which is more practical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is that wealthy parents drive/carpool kids that live 1.5-2 miles from their high school or advocate for buses on the basis that the walk is not "safe". And they disingenuously flip out at the possibility in the boundary options of their kids not being assigned to the "walkable" school they would never actually walk to. Other kids take the public buses or walk.

So MCPS should give up this stupid 2 mile walk zone policy and change to 1 mile which is more practical.

Then less opposition for diversity bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is that wealthy parents drive/carpool kids that live 1.5-2 miles from their high school or advocate for buses on the basis that the walk is not "safe". And they disingenuously flip out at the possibility in the boundary options of their kids not being assigned to the "walkable" school they would never actually walk to. Other kids take the public buses or walk.

So MCPS should give up this stupid 2 mile walk zone policy and change to 1 mile which is more practical.

Then less opposition for diversity bus.

Not necessarily the same thing. MCPS should keep bus time within 10-15 min. Not across the county. Expect any student to walk 2 mile each way is unreasonable