Yup, but that's because, well, the public transit in NYC is just a lot better than almost every other US city (and, let's face it, has a higher proportion of "normal people" riding it).
part of the problem in the US is that the parents, and often times the wider public, give children much less credit than they are do.
children are learning but they are not dumb. They can generally recognize dangerous situations and exercise good judgment, and shocking crimes like stranger abduction are incredibly rare. they can, if services exist, go to the playground and the school unassisted, but unfortunately we now live in a society where even if you trust your kids, someone else might call child services on you.
My partner does this once a week. We have an electric kids scooter. She has to drive the smaller scooter attached to her own since there is no place at school to leave a bike or a scooter. So, works fine, but still quite tedious. Schools apparently are not designed for that, probably they don't want taking care, be responsible, etc, etc.
It can be done, it takes substantially more time with a kid + walking back. My partner is driving my kido using electric scooter - which works fine as well.
