Are Pick-Up and Drop-Off Moms Killing the Environment?

JeanneSager — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:26:00 GMT

New York City is getting tough on going green. Their latest targets? Parents.

Moms and dads who leave their cars idling for more than one minute near New York City's public AND prive schools will be slapped with a $100 fine.

Mark this on the calendar, because I don't say this much. Bravo Mayor Bloomberg. Now can we spread this around the country?

I admit I've been a little guilty of this one myself of late. When it's ten below, I pull up as close to the nursery school door as possible, pop out with my daughter and run her inside - leaving the keys in the ignition the entire time What can I say, I'm a cold wuss! Although I live upstate, and the city's new law won't hit me, it's still made me give myself a slap on the wrist and vow not to do it anymore.

Every two minutes a car idles equals just about the amount of gasoline necessary to drive one mile. Gas prices might be down from the highs of last year, but in this economy, most of us could realy use the money saved on an extra mile of gas. Then throw in the environmental affects. Every gallon of gasoline produces about twenty pounds of carbon dioxide. Left to idle for ten minutes, and a car can use as much as half a gallon of gas - producing ten pounds of CO2.

Schools across the nation have started turning the buses off to cut down on pollution and fuel consumption. Studies have estimated that if every school bus in the country reduced by two minute the amount of time the engine is operating between the trips to and from school, annual emissions would drop by three hundred nineteen tons of carbon monoxide, one hundred eighty-five tons of nitrogen dioxide and just over eight tons of small particulate matter.

But while the buses themselves might produce more than a passenger vehicle, there are generally a lot more cars and trucks in the pick-up and drop-off lines than there are school buses. So how about we moms and dads get their acts together?

Image: Carbon Offset Solutions

Source: The Daily News

Big Brother is Watching You[r Kid] On the School Bus

Karen Murphy — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:32:00 GMT

You decide—good idea gone awry, or just good idea? Apparently the new accessory on school buses is a video camera, recording your kid's every nose-picking moment.

The idea is to provide an objective record when there's a bus-related dispute. Hey! Did the bus driver haul off and whack my kid for no reason like my kid says, or does my kid have a bone to pick with the driver because he made him keep his head inside the window and embarrassed him in front of everyone? Who's telling the truth? The camera will know!

And the cameras supposedly deter bullying, too. Which would have saved my daughter's birthday cake from having been consumed by the ~~fat piglike girl~~ evidently very hungry girl who extorted it from her last year, thus providing life-long birthday cake-related scars.

And the ACLU is on board with the idea, too, stating that school buses aren't a place where kids would normally expect privacy.

So how come I don't like it?

Strollerderby : school buses

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