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

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[quote=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?  
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