If they're US American, a plane is likely the only public transportation they've ever taken. If they live anywhere remotely rural, it's likely the only one available to them.

Signed, -An American

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (3 children)

I was going to say "almost every American takes a school bus at one point in their life" then I looked it up and was disgusted to find that recently more children are driven to school than take the bus.

[–] janNatan@lemmy.ml 13 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

It's absolutely ridiculous how many people drive their kids to school. The traffic reduction during fall break last week was astounding.

[–] Alienmonkey@lemm.ee 12 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

It's absolutely ridiculous how hard the school systems make it to get on a bus route.

You basically have to stay at the same residence and at the same school for their entire education. Even just moving within the district and they use it as an excuse to "put you on a wait list".

Add in the shortage of drivers (who wants that job) and any excuse they can use to change boundaries or cut a route.

It's like the fucking DMV on steroids.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 weeks ago

I am curious where you are located, this has not been my experience working closely with our schools.

[–] i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago

That is crazy. I didn't realize how bad it is in some areas. I live in a red state and have moved every year or two, and was able to get bus service with very little issue.

However, that does sound like the struggle with getting after school care. You pretty much need to get in the back of the line for every school and hope you'll get a spot so you can continue to work and pay rent.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

It is honestly necessary sometimes. My daughter was eventually taken out of school by us entirely and put in a (public) online school because of how severely she was being bullied, but before that, we had to take her to school because she could handle getting on the bus with all the kids being horrible to her every morning and afternoon.

For a while, she was allowed to listen to an mp3 player with earbuds, but then they started just shouting over the earbuds. And bus drivers barely give a shit considering how low they're paid.

So yeah, sometimes people drive their kids to school for a reason.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But 53% of people??

[–] thevoidzero@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Considering the current division, yes. There's also a lot of homeschooling because they don't want their children taught anything from 'state'.

[–] NotationalSymmetry@ani.social 0 points 4 weeks ago

The school buses don't have seatbelts.

[–] leftytighty@slrpnk.net 20 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Airports and planes see a lot of traffic from all over the world constantly rotating through. With some variation depending on the size of the city and your personal schedule, you're running into more of the same people on normal public transport.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

And you're in very close proximity for a very long time. I don't know how HVAC works on an aircraft but I assume there's a large amount of recirculation.

I was on buses and trains this morning. They weren't nearly as crowded, the trips were a lot shorter, the air moved around at every stop, and like you said, they're all pretty local, so low risk of someone importing weird diseases. At least on the subways, you should still wear a mask if only because of the air quality. There's a lot of brake dust floating around.

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

The filtration system on an airplane makes it one of the safer places to be for almost any airborne infection. The airport itself is much more dangerous, longer flights notwithstanding.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 4 weeks ago

I walk to work ten minutes to work. Partner and I each have cars. We take uber when we want to avoid driving.