I have actually permanently shifted my departure time for work due to school season commuting issues.
A grade school was built along the route through my town that I take to go almost anywhere and the display of overparenting is just incredible...hundreds of cars snarling traffic by dropping off kids when the longest bus ride is maybe a few miles. The things these smothering parents will do to get back into traffic once they have dropped their kids off are also totally mind boggling.
We felt that riding the bus would be a good social experience for our daughter and it mostly was...there was one period when she was small when a boy two years older than her started picking on her. Two nice things happened;
1. The other kids ganged up on the boy to help get him to back off, and
2. The stupid turd got kicked off the bus for a time by the driver and his mom also got a public chewing out when she went to the stop to complain that her little darling wouldn't do such a thing.
Luckily, this stopped the behavior before I had to take it up with the boy's dad...barely knew him but he was about as big as me and I was told he was a swaggering (rear end)hole, so it probably would have gotten physical and maybe I would have taken a beating, IDK. Gotta love a boy who picks on a girl much younger than him and I'd guess he learned that from the dad.
Anyway, it can easily cost me 20 extra minutes to get by this school at the wrong time...but, to be honest, I love the school as my daughter had a great time there all around and was much nicer than the old one she would have attended if the new one hadn't been built!
The folks in our neighborhood who actually do have their kids take the bus will also park up and down both sides of our street while waiting for the pickup and then stand in the road to talk...this is more of an annoyance than a real time waster, but man is it stupid! Heaven forbid you actually show up just as the bus gets there and have to wait for it to get going again AND deal with the neighbors trying to cut in front of you willy nilly rather than wait their turn.
I also will notice a lot more traffic on part of my commute with all the high school students driving themselves, they are mostly pretty easy to pick out and can cost me another 5-10 minutes at one critical intersection.
SO, I leave for work such that I will be out of the neighborhood about 5 minutes before people start parking for the bus stop and make it past our grade school long before any drop-offs happen there. The stream of cars to the high school will only be a trickle at that point and I will also miss getting stuck behind busses in the small city I work in if I happen to cut through it rather than take the highway.
I hate getting up early, but it is worth it in the end. I also keep the same schedule in the summer because I get used to having no traffic downtown and being able to park exactly where I want!