Learning to walk

The NSW government, in it's ongoing attempts to bail itself out of self-inflicted financial woes, has decided to slash the School Student Transport Scheme (SSTS) which provides children with free travel to and from school.

We live in suburbia, 800m from our local public school as the crow flies. To take a direct route means playing chicken with cars doing 80km an hour on a busy highway. Not something I'm game to do with small children and a stroller. The most direct walking route using a pedestrian crossing pushes the route to 2.5km and is not something I'd entertain for primary schoolchildren.

Currently my elder two only take the bus - a 10 minute journey - home from school, not to. Our main reason for choosing this option is to reduce our carbon footprint. The bus will be travelling regardless so why not put the kids on it and take our car off the road.

I'm a WAHM, it's convenient for me not to have to suddenly drop everything and wake the baby to race out the door at 2:55. Mostly I meet them at the bus stop anyway - it's a good opportunity to take the dog for his daily walk - but if I'm sick, or the baby is sick, they can walk the five minutes home.

So for us, opting to use the SSTS has been a matter of convenience and conscience. Now that this 40 year old scheme has been axed, can I justify buying bus passes for both children for a 10 minute journey? The answer is no, it's not financially viable.

I wonder how many more cars will be going back on the roads as a result of this decision? I wonder how many children will be forced to walk along potentially dangerous routes because their parents can't afford the cost of bus passes in an already challenging financial climate? I wonder how many families will be inconvenienced and have to make adjustments to their daily routines to accommodate? I wonder how many services will be cut as a result of being utilised? And I wonder how the NSW Government can justify this latest cut of short-term gains and long-term losses.