Comments on: Alabama Students Walk to School to Protest Gas Prices

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:05:23 +0000

It isn't new that most American kids couldn't walk to school if they wanted to, but it is still scary and a little depressing. (and no, I don't think that walking on a freeway shoulder is a reasonable way to get to school). By some accounts (http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20050921/kids-who-walk-to-school-more-active-all-day) only 10% of American kids do walk to school.

By: Ace

Ace — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:02:25 +0000

They are walking on the wrong side of the highway.

By: christine

christine — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:42:03 +0000

Finally a cost effective solution to child obesity ..

By: gecko

gecko — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:29:37 +0000

Protesting high gas prices is naive.

Protesting public and government inability to act responsibly to the climate change crisis, ongoing environmental devastation, and serious global population issues would be a lot more mature.

By: Mark L

Mark L — Sat, 24 May 2008 05:08:13 +0000

I grew up in suburban Alabama and now live in NYC, so I've experienced both the car-dependent lifestyle that these students are struggling with now as well as the virtually 100% mass transit lifestyle that readers here are most likely familiar with.

One commenter mentioned a 3 mile walk, but for me, it would have been a 10 or 15 mile walk...up a vicious hill...to get to my semirural high school. The sad sad thing is that so many American communities are literally set in stone (and asphalt) as car and road dependent, leaving no other viable options for transportation.

Same old story, I know, but this one hit close to (my old) home for me.

By: Angus Grieve-Smith

Angus Grieve-Smith — Sat, 24 May 2008 00:20:10 +0000

On Sunday night, however, the students learned that an organized walk through Killen would require a parade permit that would take 45 days to acquire. The students said they were disheartened but did not give up.

Every morning on Skillman Avenue in Woodside, hundreds of children and their parents walk to school. This is organized by the school in support of education. The NYPD has agents posted to check in on them at particular locations. It requires no permit.

Seriously, why not just have them all walk to school, in small groups for visibility? They wouldn't need a permit for that. We're talking about distances of about three miles. Unless they live further and their parents dropped them off at that church.

By: Mark Walker

Mark Walker — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:57:52 +0000

Whether it's a gas-price protest or a dependency protest, it will have an effect. By establish people walking down the road as a daily occurrence, it will change the lives of the kids and everyone who sees them. This is a wonderful thing. And soon we'll be seeing it all over the country. And it won't just be kids. It'll be everyone, all ages, all walks of life. And some of them will be on bikes.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:29:35 +0000

CW, these students ARE promoting a solution by walking to school, which doesn't use ANY fuel.

By: cw

cw — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:00:19 +0000

why don't people protest crappy-fuel efficiency rather than high gas prices? If our cars got further per gallon, it wouldn't matter how expensive gas is.

gas prices are going to go up. people should quit whining about it, and start promoting a solution like greater fuel efficiency.

By: Charlie D.

Charlie D. — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:51:15 +0000

Generation Y very much recognizes that our parents' dream of a big house on a cul-di-sac in a leafy suburb is not a dream that we want.

I can't help but notice how young people are repopulating and reinvesting in neighborhoods in cities and older suburbs that were all but given up on by the older generation. Having a lot of land, a big house, and plentiful parking is just not what's important for Gen Y.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:11:34 +0000

Um... here's a crazy idea, take the school bus. I seemed to have gotten back and forth to high school (as did most of my peers) on the bus. Crazy as that might seem; granted, it was the 1980s so it was lawless and wild like that.

By: James

James — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:45:26 +0000

It's good to see this. Generation Y gets this, but older folks seem to be taking longer to make the connection, and the oldest among us will probably never make the connection. The horrible land use patterns that predominate over vast swaths of the US are going to become everyone's worst enemy as we adjust to the "new normal". And I'm less than surprised to see that the local school district had only a limp, bureaucratic response to offer, rather than doing something to facilitate the students' initiative.

By: moocow

moocow — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:09:32 +0000

It does seem like a price protest, not a "Dependency" protest. American teenagers protesting that gas is too expensive is obnoxious, and I hope that is not what is happening here. The ruckus in NJ is about not being allowed to bike to school, a worthwhile subject to make a stink about. I hope I have it wrong with these Alabama students, and wish them strength to keep it up.

By: Susan Donovan

Susan Donovan — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:05:42 +0000

This is the generational divide-- our elders who created this built environment have left us on the median, on the edge of the road without any options.

I can't get over the fact that their parents are in the cars whizzing by.

By: Susan Donovan

Susan Donovan — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:50:04 +0000

I think this is great-- it shows just how silly it is that there are no sidewalks!

By: laurel

laurel — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:48:11 +0000

There must be something about Alabama. This is the third high school "gas price protest" i've heard of. The previous two had the students on bikes. The first i heard of was in Eclectic; the second in Glencoe, 100 miles to the north. Florence is another hundred miles north and west of Glencoe. There are also hints that while this may be triggered by prices, it may not be entirely a price protest, but a dependency protest. Which to me is much more interesting! -Laurel

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:36:30 +0000

Perhaps they should have biked instead...
Go bicycles!!