I live in a quiet suburban neighborhood. We have an elementary school about 5 blocks away that serves the neighborhood. There are no buses that service it because every child that attends the school lives within a mile. Its a 5 minute walk from my home, maybe 10 minutes. It is about as far as I had to walk to a bus stop to go to school when I was in elementary school (which I walked alone or with other children in my neighborhood). Yet, at 8 a.m. every morning, my neighborhood becomes a dangerous traffic nightmare as parents drive their children to the school because its "too dangerous" to allow them to walk. Yes, there is one "busy" through street for them to cross (complete with a 4 way stop sign and a cross walk). But that's it.

I asked one parent, and he said "You know how many predetors are out there?" I told him, probably just as many as there were when I was a child or he was a child walking alone to school.

Anyway, that's why this is so cool. And a corresponding blog called Free Range Kids.