I don’t have kids so have no knowledge of when school term times are. However I can tell very easily just by how much traffic there is on my commute to work if the kids are at school or not.

School holiday = far less traffic. Fact. But what I don’t understand is why?

People I know with kids don’t take every day off work when the kids are off school – it’d be impossible unless they’ve got a massive holiday allowance compared to normal. They don’t turn up later or anything either…

My commutes over the years have never passed a school so its not the actual “school run” I’m missing.

I can’t compute the logic of why there are less cars on the road?

Anyone?

Well, people go off on holiday (not everyone at once, obviously, but it reduces numbers), there aren’t any school buses on the roads, people who drive their kids then go to work have fewer journeys to make, and there are no crossing guards slowing down traffic.

Don’t look at the pupils, look at the staff. In England, approx 770,000 people work in schools.

A lot of people who don’t work take their kids to school.

Parents are ensuring that they will be unfit by not making those that live near enough walk.

IME fatties driving cars in rush hour cause congestion 😉

13 weeks school holliday, divided by the 4 weeks most people get, means about 1/3rd of people with kids probably take holliday on average on any given school holliday day.

As probably arround 1/5th of the population probably have one or more kids arround school age, that’s aboti 1/15th of the poulation on holliday.

And they won’t be doing the school run then going to Tesco for example, they’ll go to tesco later in the day, so you don’t have to pass a school to get slowed down by the ‘school run mums’ then dispersing to tesco/gym/affair.

On my commute, school holidays show a big drop in cars, and a *big* increase in bicycles. My guess is parents cycle when freed from the school run.

I’ll keep saying it, to those who mistake this as a cycling forum (or a forum for slagging off everyone in a car) – people don’t just drive because they’re lazy, but because they must. School holidays give them a chance to bike and they take it in droves, to the extent I start panicking as to why the roads are deserted! (Am I late? Did I miss a daylight savings switch..? 😆 )

It’s a reduction. Not everyone will change their habits, but enough to make a big difference will.

When I took my son to primary school (which was about 5 miles away), I would drive past the school on the way to work so I usually went in later to combine both tasks. I expect this type of behaviour concentrates cars in one area at a specific time whereas without school starting time, traffic would be spread over a wider area and time.

I also offered to pick Robert up on the way in too but that’s because I fancied his mum.

theres less cars as more people do take time off to be with kids, they may not from your work, but they do from mine. Summer especially so.

klumpy i take my son to nursery in the bike trailer

the traffic is quieter in the City during school holidays, where virtually none of it is school run traffic during term time.

klumpy i take my son to nursery in the bike trailer

You’re lucky it’s close enough to work to make that do-able. (Cos I bet if you towed the trailer behind a car there’d be trouble!)

There’s also the matter of capacity on the road network, a small drop in the percentage of vehilces using any given network can be the difference between free flowing and congested. So even, say, a 2% drop in traffic can make a big difference to road users journey times. The shorter journey times are what makes it appear that there are much less vehicles on the road than there actually is!

If local kids went to local schools this would reduce the amount of traffic. But instead kids can go to schools miles away, because their local school is either rubbish or full up. Inevitably they get to their not so local school by car, adding to the traffic problem.

In short the government need to invest more in education and parents need to encourage their kids to walk/ride to their local schools.

A bit like Tuesday morning is usually the busiest on a commute – ‘cos how many people take a Tuesday off?

A bit like Tuesday morning is usually the busiest on a commute – ‘cos how many people take a Tuesday off?

An aside, but related to that; did you realise that 40% of sick days are taken on Mondays and Fridays..?

Wot Peyote said. It only takes a small % increase to send traffic over the tipping point from free flowing to stop-start congestion.

Do you find Monday and Friday are less congested too??

I have a 26 mile commute. School hols I just fly through usual congestion spots. Mon and Fri are noticeably less congested too…

DrP

As above – school run traffic is down to kids going to their “non-local” school, either by flouting the admission rules or by getting their eldest in, moving away and continuing to send subsequent siblings to the same school, resulting in the need to drive.

my kids’ school has a tiny APR, but yet a f*cking boatload of parents drive

I live beside 2 private schools, and am convinced that every child is accompanied to school in the morning by two parents, each mother and father in their own Audi Q7 or Range Rover ‘Vogue’.

The upside is that whenever I feel tempted to give in and use the car to get to work, I just think about getting out of my neighbourhood through the traffic lights, and immediately get my bike out of the shed.

We love our School run…

IMAG0774 by pten2106, on Flickr

takisawa2, that is the definition of cool.

I will propose getting one to MrsSR.

did yourealisethat 40% of sick days are taken on Mondays andFridays..?

Whereas only 20% are taken on either a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Shocking.