Kid Commute

In Paris, there's no such thing as a school bus if you're in the public schools.  It's walk or take public transportation.  Out in the hinterlands, it's another story.   There are school buses for kids who live a good distance from school but more and more often, parents drop off their kids by car.  In fact, between 1983 and 2003, the number of French parents taking their kids to school by automobile quadrupled from 10 percent to 40 percent.  What's more, most of these trips are less than a kilometer, about 12 minutes on foot if you are a kid.

So enter the walking school bus, or as it's known in France -- the Pédibus.  Kids gather at predetermined locations and walk together with parents to school.   This concept isn't unique to France (in fact, it's the brain child of an Australian) but it's catching on.   Currently, about 150 "lines" operate in France, including this one in Saint-Rémy-Lès-Chevreuse, a town southwest of Paris on the RER B.   Less traffic, fewer parking hassles, and an opportunity for kids to walk to school with adult supervision -- sounds pretty good to me.