Unintended Consequence of Raising Awareness of Distracted Driving
You’d think that once a teenager got their driver’s license, the family would consider moving further away from, not closer, to the high school their kid(s) attend.
But, I’ve now just handled my third transaction in under a year where one of the driving (sorry) motives for the family move was to minimize how much driving their teen had to do.
“Walkability Score” . . . for High Schools
What’s going on?
I see it as a combination of new attitudes toward driving, plus open enrollment being more common (open enrollment is when a family zoned for one school district sends their kid(s) to another).
Before the oldest kid is 16 years old and has their driver’s license, living far away from high school is inconvenient for the family, but the inconvenience falls mainly on the parents.
Once the teen is driving, all that road time — for a newbie driver traveling often-icy Minnesota roads, sometimes on Saturday night(!) — is a not-so-hypothetical parental worry.
Housing Wish List: Basement Bedroom(s)
Especially if the family was open enrolling from far away, moving closer to school can simultaneously increase the family’s quality of life and sense of safety.
And if there are younger children in the household as well, multiply by two or three.
As for that new-found(?) sense of vulnerability: all the emphasis on the horrific consequences of drunken and distracted driving, while important and life-saving, is having an unintended consequence: teens who are gun-shy about driving at all (true of my 16 year-old, and many of his friends).
P.S.: Guess what type of home appeals to families with teenagers?
Homes with finished lower levels that have legal Bedrooms and at least one Bath.
