Dodge the Child Pickup Line: Save Gas, Time, Sanity

Those of you who have kids in private school have probably figured this out already, but the drop-off and pick-up protocol for kids at school (and, in our case, summer camp) are like Kafkaesque lines of parental torture. There are rules, lots of them (no arriving before a particular time, no getting out of the car, numbers prominently displayed in windshield), and little reward. So little reward. The average wait time in these lines appears to be approximately seventeen years. Considering that idling is such a waste of gas and produces the same emissions as actually getting someplace and that idling for more than 10 seconds wastes more gas than turning off your car and restarting it, it's a colossal drain of not only your brains, which will be pouring out all over the car, but of a nonrenewable resource. (great info on idling at OrganicPicks found via GreenBeanDreams)

So a tip for those of you headed to the next session of camp or to a school with a drop-off line in the fall? As usual, I was slow to realize the obvious, easy, and eco-friendly choice, so you probably already figured this out when you went to grade school yourself. If not? Here's what I decided to do (along with a couple dozen other parents who saw the folly of the long and winding road to the camper pickup door). Skip the line. Turn my car off. Walk my kid right up to the door. Park my car. Walk my ownself up the hill to get her. Heck, I realized I could be 20 minutes late to pick her up, and still I'd be the first to scoop her up to take her home! Walking up that one hill gave me bonus exercise, to boot.

I love it when the greener choice is also a sanity and timesaver. Hope you're having a great summer.



*Photo courtesy of sxc. Read more!