Walking to school

If you could choose to live close to a school, what level would you prefer?

  • Elementary (K-6)

    Votes: 17 77.3%
  • Middle School (7-8)

    Votes: 2 9.1%
  • High School (9-12)

    Votes: 3 13.6%
  • Other (home school, no school, school of hard knocks)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    22

irvinehomeowner

Well-known member
I ask this question because an area we once lived in was actually walkable to all 3.

Our preference would be walkable from high school. That's the age I can most trust my kids to be able to handle themselves.

Even though in Irvine I see really young kids walking or biking to school, I just don't trust the crazy drivers or even worse, the crazier stalkers (even in Irvine).

Granted, for high school, you can live farther because by 11th grade your kids will be able to drive, but at the same time, I think traffic is crazier because there are so many people dropping off (less high schools than the other levels) and you have to deal with those teenage drivers too.
 
Assuming you're buying now for a pre-school age kid (or no kid), the obvious choice is elementary. You may have moved already by the time they hit high school. It is also the most number of years (6) unless your kid goes to a 7-12 grade school (are there any in Irvine?), in which case it is still tied.

I agree that biking on the roads is tough. That is why I think some of the best situations are areas where the kid can bike along a car-free greenbelt to a school. e.g. look at Deerfield Elem & Venado Middle school. If you live on, say, Mariposa, it's totally car-free to bike to school and very pleasant.

I personally believe my kids should be able to walk to elementary school alone in Irvine, but I understand it depends on each parents' risk tolerance.
 
I'd stay away from any high school as those campuses appear to have activities (traffic) between 6:30am and 10pm in addition to summer camps.
 
i live walking distance to elementary and i really like it. I would like the same for high school too if possible. Can kids start driving themselves around softmore in high school nowadays? if so do you trust them to drive on their own at 16..? I heard the insurance is super high.
 
Interesting, the highest vote so far is elem.

I wouldn't let my kids walk to elem without me, but I see it all the time and not just in Irvine.
 
The funny thing about Elem being walkable is that someone has to be home for those kids right? So you might as well pick up/drop off.

Logically, I think it would easier if high school kids could walk since they can be home by themselves. Although, at that age, they probably need just as much, if not more, adult supervision. :)
 
Well OH WOULD have been walkable to all 3 IF:
- OH school was K-8 like it was intended to be
- And you were zoned to NW High across the street (over Beckman 4 miles down Culver)

But NOPE, I'm not bitter... ::)
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Even though in Irvine I see really young kids walking or biking to school, I just don't trust the crazy drivers or even worse, the crazier stalkers (even in Irvine).

Too many parents are absolutely neurotic.  They seem to be taught neuroses by other neurotics:  "Fear this!  Fear that!  OOoooh, it's scary out there!"

1.  When is the last time you read about a child being hit by a car while walking to school in Irvine?  I recall an high school student, riding in the back of his friend's pickup truck, who crashed and rolled it, breaking his friend's  back.  That was decades ago.  The parents went ballistic blaming the high school, not their son for breaking the seat belt law.

2.  When is the last time you read about a child being kidnapped while walking  to school in Irvine?  I never have.  There are simply too many people and drivers everywhere, who are alert, and very, very few psychos, particularly relative to the neurotic worry about it.


Granted, for high school, you can live farther because by 11th grade your kids will be able to drive, but at the same time, I think traffic is crazier because there are so many people dropping off (less high schools than the other levels) and you have to deal with those teenage drivers too.

Crazy traffic, dropping their  kids off at school every morning, and picking them up every afternoon.  Then they complain about.... all the traffic.  And the kids need the exercise walking and riding bikes provides, but they don't get enough of. Hello adult obesity onset. There are SO many kids walking and riding bikes and skateboards, and so many crossing guards and stoplights, these aren't really issues in Irvine.
 
Talk about necro.

Actually, I believe a kid just got hit over in Cypress Village not too long ago.

And just a few months ago a teenager was arrested for groping women in northern Irvine.

It only takes one incident and you?ll regret your post.
 

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Dresden215 said:
I've had kids attending OH School since the opening in 2010 and there have been at least 6 kids that have been hit by cars. Thankfully, none have been fatalities. The following is a common occurrence near Settlers Park during school drop off/pick up. Would you want your kids in that crosswalk?

"School drop off/pick up" means that many, many cars driving to and from the school near which is the highest concentration of children. Are you getting this?  The very place where all the cars and children come together?  If all of the children were walking or riding their bicycles, that danger would not be remotely as great.  It means that six kids would not have been hit.

My children were in crosswalks for all of their school years in Irvine.  Tens of thousands are every single day, and so naturally you point out a single event here or there which serves to validate my point, that they are quite rare.  And they would be rarer if thousands of parents weren't driving their kids to school every single  day.

A few years ago, a retired couple was walking on the sidewalk on Yale to the gym when a Northwood High School student drove up on the sidewalk and killed them both.  Would you "want to walk on that sidewalk"?  I have and I still do.  The investigation paint marks were there for a very long time, and so were memorial crosses.
Anyone can find exceptions to a given rule.
 
Dresden215 said:
Let's not forget the 4 year old that was killed while riding a scooter:

http://ktla.com/2017/01/15/4-year-old-boy-struck-and-killed-by-car-in-irvine-intersection-police/

I've had kids attending OH School since the opening in 2010 and there have been at least 6 kids that have been hit by cars. Thankfully, none have been fatalities. The following is a common occurrence near Settlers Park during school drop off/pick up. Would you want your kids in that crosswalk?

JIMHO, there are at least two in the picture that need traffic citations.  If Irvine PD and the rest of the  local police really want to do our communities good, they need a heavy crack down on the intersection blocking.  A heavy crackdown followed by random recurring crackdowns will resolve the issue along with raising funds.  Not that I'm a fan of raising funsd, but dumbass drivers really need some common sense and courtesy beat into them.

 
StarmanMBA said:
"School drop off/pick up" means that many, many cars driving to and from the school near which is the highest concentration of children. Are you getting this?  The very place where all the cars and children come together?  If all of the children were walking or riding their bicycles, that danger would not be remotely as great.  It means that six kids would not have been hit.

So walking, biking and mass transit is the solution? :)

My children were in crosswalks for all of their school years in Irvine.  Tens of thousands are every single day, and so naturally you point out a single event here or there which serves to validate my point, that they are quite rare.  And they would be rarer if thousands of parents weren't driving their kids to school every single  day.

A few years ago, a retired couple was walking on the sidewalk on Yale to the gym when a Northwood High School student drove up on the sidewalk and killed them both.  Would you "want to walk on that sidewalk"?  I have and I still do.  The investigation paint marks were there for a very long time, and so were memorial crosses.
Anyone can find exceptions to a given rule.

Sure, but you do what you can to lower those chances. I'm an adult with more experience than children and quite frankly, may win in a collision with a car ("Nothing moves the Blob!!") so I can avoid dangers (although I have been almost hit several times when on my bike).

Unlike most of you, I was mugged when I was a kid walking home alone (obv not in Irvine) so maybe I have some bias. And I know a number of people who have incidents while walking home.

You live your life, I live mine.
 
Bumped for Mety.

Looks like his preference jives with everyone else, more people want Elem to be within walking distance.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Bumped for Mety.

Looks like his preference jives with everyone else, more people want Elem to be within walking distance.

Yes, people eventually jive with me usually. :)

But wouldn't it make sense to walk younger ones and send out older ones in general?

 
When you have 2 working parents, driving younger ones and having older ones walk/bike themselves until they are older is better to me.
 
Let%u2019s cut to the chase. Forget time savings, emotions...

From an ROI perspective it%u2019s better to live by a school. Am I right?
 
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