Cycling to school

[spursdave]

Got my youngest interested and we've not looked back!!!
It's a 1.8 mile journey there so 3.6 for him a day.
For me it's obviously 7.2 miles.
He gets to school 20 minutes early and has time to play.
Out of a school of a couple of hundred I am the ONLY parent who cycles to school!!!!!!
NO WONDER 90% OF THE PARENTS ARE FAT!!!!!!!!!

You can check out some of our rides on You tube by typing in Mid Essex Cycling

 

[I like Skol]

Excellent. I think all kids should be taught that cycling is a good form of (alternative?) transport and not just a leisure activity.

How old is your son? I try to cycle my kids to school when possible (not as often as I would like due to crap weather and crap shift patterns) My oldest is 9 and I would say he is almost ready to do the ride solo. The youngster is only 6 and can still be surprisingly erratic so I am reluctant to chance it sometimes as he just doesn't seem to concentrate on his surroundings with any consistancy yet. The school run is 2.5 miles each way so I can clock up a whopping 10 miles just commuting with the kids

Both my boys love it and we also use bikes for short errands whenever possible (nipping to shops, post office, cubs/beavers), anything to get some exercise and try to break the reliance on the car. I have panniers on my working bike so the kids see it as a practical load lugger that can handle school bags or 2 large bags of shopping, etc. I am sure I am setting a good example for their later life.

I know what you mean about the parents, this is a junior school so only the oldest kids travel there by bike alone and then only 2 or 3 with anything approaching regularity and in the 5 yrs we have been there I have only spotted one other parent arrive by bike. The rest either walk or turn up by car with some dreadful and inconsiderate parking not unusual including one muppet in a large audi or bmw 4x4 who pulls up on the yellow zigzags right outside the gates so he can push his little angels out the door without stopping the engine or getting out himself! If I had less self control I would take something sharp and 'accidentally' walk into his car with it.

 

[ColinJ]

Well done!

It's quite shocking how much things have changed in the 2 generations since I was a child (to my amazement, I am now old enough to be a grandfather, though that isn't going to happen because I skipped the rather essential being-a-father stage!) ...

My junior school ran cycling lessons for us and entered us in the Cycling Proficiency test. At the age of 9, I was happily whizzing about on the roads unsupervised.

When I moved up to grammar school, there were massed ranks of bike sheds. Probably 20% of boys cycled to school and nearly all the others came in by bus or walked. Now, the bike sheds are gone, replaced by staff car parking and extra buildings. The school now has a one-way system on part of what used to be a playing field at the front of the school buildings. Parents can now drive in and drop their little darlings off about 50 metres from the school entrance. Of course, that soon gets clogged up so they randomly stop in the middle of a busy road to unload the kids. School Run Madness!

 

[Norm]

It's quite shocking how much things have changed in the 2 generations since I was a child ...

In many places, yes, but it's not ubiquitous. My daughter's (girls only) school has no bike sheds, my son's (boys only) school has loads, but there are never enough for all those who want to use them.

Between the cyclists and those who perambulate, I doubt if 5% of my son's peers get a lift to school. Conversely, I doubt if 5% of my daughter's peers don't get a lift to school.

 

[ColinJ]

In many places, yes, but it's not ubiquitous. My daughter's (girls only) school has no bike sheds, my son's (boys only) school has loads, but there are never enough for all those who want to use them.

Between the cyclists and those who perambulate, I doubt if 5% of my son's peers get a lift to school. Conversely, I doubt if 5% of my daughter's peers don't get a lift to school.

The Direct-grant system that paid my fees was abolished by Labour just after I left the school. The parents of most of the kids going to my school now must be pretty well off so I think that many of them will be multi-car families able to manage the School Run!

 

[Norm]

Possibly, but, then again, both my kids are at state schools now.

My son's (ex-grammar) school is on a good cycle path and I ride past it on my way to my office, so there's a chance we will ride together a couple of times a week.

My daughter's school is not a friendly bike ride from here, but there is a pretty good bus service which stops about a mile away. The roads around her school are pretty hectic in the mornings, though, because of all the school run moms.

 

[ColinJ]

My daughter's school is not a friendly bike ride from here, but there is a pretty good bus service which stops about a mile away. The roads around her school are pretty hectic in the mornings, though, because of all the school run moms.

What really shocked me was that parents were stationary in the traffic jam that they helped to create and rather than letting their kids out 200 yards down the road and turning away down a side road, they were queueing for up to 10 minutes to drive forward those 200 yards!

 

[MrJamie]

sometimes my nephew is driven to primary school with his bike in the boot and I cycle home with him. I was impressed the school has plenty of under cover bike parking inside locked school gates and has some kind of green points if you walk or cycle.

they always had dismount signs at the gates but recently they've sent out a letter/email banning people from cycling anywhere near the school including the nearby mk cycle network which isnt the end of the world but isn't exactly encouraging of cycling imho and I couldn't imagine them making drivers walk the last 1-200m.

 

[Ian Cooper]

I'm a Briton living in the US, and it's a whole different universe over here. Just last week in Michigan, a bunch of kids were suspended for riding bicycles to school - and this was with the Mayor and a police escort riding with them. Last year in Tennessee, a mother got a visit from social services after she let her 10 year-old daughter ride to school unsupervised.

I take my daughter to school on my bike with a Trail-a-Bike attachment. I'm usually the only parent that cycles and my daughter is usually the only kid that cycles - this in an elementary school (ages 5 to 11) of over 500 kids. There is a rack that can hold 5 bikes - it usually is unused. My daughter is about ready to transition to riding her own bike on the road with me to school, which will, I'm sure, elicit some controversy.

 

[Ian Cooper]

...recently they've sent out a letter/email banning people from cycling anywhere near the school including the nearby mk cycle network...

How do they get the ability to do that? I thought Britons had a very basic right to public roadways.

Isn't the MK cycle network the infamous one that had more cyclist accidents after it was installed than happened before?

 

[MrJamie]

How do they get the ability to do that? I thought Britons had a very basic right to public roadways.

Isn't the MK cycle network the infamous one that had more cyclist accidents after it was installed than happened before?

I think it's just a request or school specific rule, asking parents to help impose this "no wheels zone" both in school grounds and on the public multi-use paths immediately around the school. There would be nothing stopping or even informing other unrelated cyclists not to ride around the area. It's barely an inconvenience, i just felt it affirmed the notion that when theres a potential car vs cyclists vs ped conflict, removing the nuscience cyclist is the best option. As I mentioned I dont think it would go down well if they asked drivers to park outside this area on grounds of safety.

I dont think youre thinking of MK, the network is 100% off the roads, aside from some crossing of residential roads, which are fine so long as you dont fly blindly out accross a road like some. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes_redway_system

Im suprised by the attitude in the US you mention, is it because cycling to school seen as unsafe?

 

[summerdays]

There are usually a number of parents at my youngest child's school walking with their bikes in the school grounds, and the bike shed is fairly well used though it would be nice to see more bikes in there. However you can get some really bad driving by parents by the school when they will use the path to drive along because the other side of the road is completely blocked by parents parking to drop off their child. As we are in a city most children should theoretically live extremely close by to get into the school due to the shortage of places.

At my elder children's school I've even seen some children cycle (or in one case uni-cycle) to the off site part of the school.

 

[400bhp]

sometimes my nephew is driven to primary school with his bike in the boot and I cycle home with him. I was impressed the school has plenty of under cover bike parking inside locked school gates and has some kind of green points if you walk or cycle.

they always had dismount signs at the gates but recently they've sent out a letter/email banning people from cycling anywhere near the school including the nearby mk cycle network which isnt the end of the world but isn't exactly encouraging of cycling imho and I couldn't imagine them making drivers walk the last 1-200m.

The school is bang out of order. I would not accept that.

 

[Ian Cooper]

I dont think youre thinking of MK, the network is 100% off the roads, aside from some crossing of residential roads, which are fine so long as you dont fly blindly out accross a road like some. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes_redway_system

That's it - the Redway system. Here's the study:
1999 Franklin (review): Two Decades of the Redway Cycle Paths in Milton Keynes

Im suprised by the attitude in the US you mention, is it because cycling to school seen as unsafe?

Yeah, I suppose so. There's a kind of 'moral panic' going on about cycling here. It's regarded as so unsafe that cyclists are regarded as irresponsible for doing it. This despite the fact that cycling has a lifetime risk that's half that for motoring.

 

[MrJamie]

That's it - the Redway system. Here's the study:
1999 Franklin (review): Two Decades of the Redway Cycle Paths in Milton Keynes

Yeah, I suppose so. There's a kind of 'moral panic' going on about cycling here. It's regarded as so unsafe that cyclists are regarded as irresponsible for doing it. This despite the fact that cycling has a lifetime risk that's half that for motoring.

Interesting report I enjoyed reading, I dont want to drag this thread off-topic but I dont agree with the safety statistics at all. Theres so many more bikes on the Redways than the few on the roads and so long as you slow/stop to give way where the cycle path crosses a local road its virtually impossible to meet a car. Visability being the highest cause, is simply because a lot of the hedges and bushes/rows of houses block vision until the last couple of metres and people take the risk and approach too fast. http://goo.gl/maps/lhDX A redway blindly crossing enterance to a sportsground and http://goo.gl/maps/3W3L Totally blind crossing now bushes have filled out. http://goo.gl/maps/26Zi same, but people have just left a 60mph road. People cross without looking all the time and sometimes get hit, thats where the bad statistics are from imho. I like it because my safety is more in my control than hoping drivers dont drive into me.