Now when i was a kid the furthest i lived from school was about 3-4 miles… i was lucky enough to have a mum who worked hours that meant whilst at infants school she could walk with me… then as soon as i was old enough to remember the way i was sent off on my own…. the only time i got a lift to school was for an open evening and i had to carry my guitar and amp i seem to remember.

So i've always been pretty anti-parents-driving-their-kids-to-school…. but i must remember i lived in a reasonably safe area, didnt have to cross any motorways to get to school, lived less than an hour away, and back in those days the only reason women were allowed in 4X4 was if they were carrying the sandwiches for all the manly man activities you were off to do.

Nowadays my drive to and from work each day is made at laast 45 minutes longer each way by (mainly) women in massive 4X4s with 1 small child in the back and i see no reason to need such vehicles let alone me thinking most of these kids could be walking….

the biggest risk i see to most of the kids that i do see walking is the mums blindly parking their 4X4s in the faces of the healthy kids outside the school-gates.

dont get me started on parent and child parking.. thats another subject to troll when i'm bored 😉

come on STW….. on your marks…. get set…. fight!

Nowadays my drive to and from work each day is made at laast 45 minutes longer each way by (mainly) women in massive 4X4s with 1 small child in the back and i see no reason to need such vehicles let alone me thinking most of these kids could be walking….

the biggest risk i see to most of the kids that i do see walking is the mums blindly parking their 4X4s in the faces of the healthy kids outside the school-gates.

Couldn't agree more – it's shocking how much less congestion there is in school holidays, and in term time the area around one local school is absolute bedlam with people doing all sorts of ridiculous parking. It's a product of the lazy, risk averse society we seem to be creating.

Theres all these perverts out there, trying to nick the kids,then the parents will be seen as poor or not careing for not delivering the kids to school,if on the very slight chance something happens to the kid, remember most assaults on kids are by family members, mum or dad.

and all these dangerous drivers, parking where they like, and speeding to get the other kids to school.

You drive to work!

ha ha ha 😆

My dad drives my nipper to school every day and the school is half a mile away. However my old bod would keel over these days if he walked that distance up hill. Next term it's the bike for my little'un.

Trouble with the school run is that a lot of folks combine the run with the comute to work. The rush hour in term time does'nt really finnish untill 10am.

My ride to work is much quieter during hols.

haha yeah i sure do, cant go around transporting psych patients on the back on a tandem or sitting on the handlebars of my mtb…. i'd love to invest in a roadbike and be fit enough to ride to work, but i need to be able to jump in a car without notice and drive to different units often up to 50ish miles away 🙁

Couldn't agree more – it's shocking how much less congestion there is in school holidays, and in term time the area around one local school is absolute bedlam with people doing all sorts of ridiculous parking. It's a product of the lazy, risk averse society we seem to be creating.

Why is it shocking? There's loads more room on trains in the holidays, as well.
Agree with the ridiculous parking though, but the reality is that a lot more people have cars than even 10 years ago, and there are more two car families. The simple fact is more people use cars for all sorts of journeys, not just school runs, than they did a few years back. The disparity in quality of schools mean the people are happy to send their kids to schools that aren't on their doorstep, and parents are far more aware of the various risks to their children than they used to be, irrespective of the reality of something bad occurring.

i am sure they have reasons to. 🙄

Why is it shocking?

It's shocking because I live in a small city, where almost no-one is beyond walking distance from a reasonable school.

its not the whole picture though is it grum what if the mrs or me for that matter drop the kids at school on the way to work?
you try sending your 5 year old down the lane which gets used as a rat run just around scool time every day.

its not the whole picture though is it grum what if the mrs or me for that matter drop the kids at school on the way to work?

Shouldn't be driving to work either 😉

you try sending your 5 year old down the lane which gets used as a rat run just around scool time every day.

Dunno but round here there seems to be plenty of lollipop men and ladies, walking buses etc

ok mate fair do's that does sound like a differnt scene to what we have round these parts.
all the kids round here come from a fairly wide rural catchment.
the mrs does need to drive to work though she could be in up to three courts a day.

you try sending your 5 year old down the lane which gets used as a rat run just around scool time every day.

Do you not see the irony in that statement?

they are not all folks going to the school though are they ? 🙄
do you have a car peter?

Grum…. Nonk….. i am disappointed. this is the internet… you're not meant to be grown-up and agree that both are in individual and different situations!!

dont make me resort to parent and child parking spaces… 😉

move to the country if you hate traffic, if not shut ye bloody moaning gob and get on with your own life rather than complaining about others.

But the countryside is also full of nobs in 4x4s that don't know how to drive (is that better phil?) 🙂

anagallis_arvensis …. didnt say i hate traffic 😉 thought my first post was quite well ballanced…. oh and do you see the irony in taking the time to moan about moaning?

yet there's no irony in your girly whine about people choosing to use their cars when you want to use your unhindered by other traffic.

do you have a car peter?

Yes. It sits at home and hardly gets used during the week.

anagallis_arvensis …. wasnt a whine, was a topic starter and a couple of people have taken the bait 🙂 lets be friends… *offers cup of tea* cuppa?

so you would send you five year old girl of down a three mile lane with high hedges and no footpath at eight oclock in the morning in the winter when folks are nailing it up and down it on the way to work?

Nowadays my drive to and from work each day

Why do you think it's ok for you to drive to work but not ok for people to drive their kids to school (many of whom will no doubt also be doing this on their way to work)?

school hols=less traffic yep, but plenty of people are off work looking after their kids, it's not all school run driving.

nonk when I lived in a rural area we had school buses – does that not happen any more?

aa – my city is frequently gridlocked, often by cars with one person in them – and most research suggests that many car journeys are very short and basically unnecessary. Do you think this is a good thing for some reason?

Yes. It sits at home and hardly gets used during the week.

that's what really pisses me off- weekend drivers.

I reckon carless days would be a good idea- during the 70's oil crisis each car (unlesss the use was justified ie emergency staff on call, taxis, that sort of thing) had a windscreen sticker denoting a weekday when it wasn't to be driven. Made quite a difference to traffic volumes, and to people's attitudes. Not sure whether that would work in these isles though.

I reckon carless days would be a good idea

Great idea. Imagine the fuss your average Sun/Daily Mail reader would make about it though – 'WAR ON MOTORISTS! WHAT ABOUT OUR RIGHTS!' etc

in some places grum yes but on the whole not really.
you can get a bus to the local high school from here but not the primary.
you would be able to get a bus if you went to the route but by the time we have done that we could be at scool.

so you would send you five year old girl of down a three mile lane with high hedges and no footpath at eight oclock in the morning in the winter when folks are nailing it up and down it on the way to work?

You missed the point.

But to try and calm you down a bit, it's obviously not practical for everyone to walk to school, no. Everyone's situation is different. But there are MANY people who are simply to idle to walk. Until very recently Mrs PP used to walk to work, 2 miles each way. It's an odd layout of roads round here, and to drive is over 5 miles and took about 20 mins or so due to traffic. She passed a housing estate then was litterally 1/3 of a mile from the offices, and due to the odd layout is still a 4+ miles drive. One woman she worked with ,who lives in said estate, said "I see you walking the opposite way to me as I'm driving in, when I'm running late I walk becasue it's quicker"

😐

i love a good rant!

the mum of a neighbouring family (horrible people), drives her kids to school, which is a 10min walk away, then she drives back home.

the kids are about 8 years old. probably older.

the point that other people miss is that yes they used to walk to school but so did everyone else so it was far safer and yes i see the irony in the it but its not just the school mums that are to blame.
allso i dont buy into the whole one mum one kid thing that is not what we see in real terms everyone helps each other out. most of the cars are rammed full of kids.

well obviously (this is for those who dont know what a devils advocate is) i think that nobody should be allowed on the roads apart from me! if you've got kids then you shouldnt be at work, let alone driving them to school on the way to work! child abuse i tells ya!

🙄

I live about 150m from a primary school. One neighbour who lives about 300m in the opposite direction drives her 2 children to school!

If I didnt see it with my own eyes I wouldnt have believed it.

Not sure where you live in the country but in my neck of the woods school admissions are controlled mainly by "As the crow flies" distance from your house to the school.

Nobody more than 0.7 mailes away gets into the local primary school and 1.2 miles for the local comprehensive schools. Despite this there is often gridlock around schools with many stereotypical 4x4s with one infant in the back seat.

Maybe admission criteria should include a commitment to walk rather drive to school but I guess this would be difficult to enforce.

Traffic in Truro at least triples in "rush hour" when the kids are back.

My solution?

A park and ride at every major entrance road to the city. Parents drive there and the kids then get bussed in. It would make a HUGE difference.

Why did it used to be safer to walk to school?

I'd say media hype has got parents running scared – the actual risk is the same. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Fred West, the Yorkshire Ripper, etc, etc all happened a looooong time ago and were hardly insignificant.

Why did it used to be safer to walk to school?

more kids walked to school=saftey in numbers.
less cars.
folks looked out for kids walking more than they do now.
i would have thought this was obvious but yes your park and ride idea would be great.

my kids being nabbed had never crossed my mind i think you maybe the media victim.

Why did it used to be safer to walk to school?

Because there was less cars on the road? 🙂

but that is the somewhat ironic catch twenty two of it though.