Ministers want 60% of children walking or cycling to school by 2035

[ebikeerwidnes]

the problem I feel is that the people that design the stuff, dont have much of a feel for cycling generally, unlike their Dutch counterparts, and so they treat everything they implement as like a pedestrian but with wheels problem. pedestrians cross roads, so pedestrians with wheels end up doing so to, and so on.

certainly what Im seeing more of lately are schemes that tend to just rebadge already cycle ready routes, or quietways, as "cycling infra" often at great cost, maybe with some road priority changes or kerbing, even though they really dont improve things for cyclists that much, or provide much of a desire line style route.

I mean surely if the idea is to replace car journeys, you model your cycleways to mirror the kinds of journeys people take in their cars, you dont join up two random places on a map because it might look nicer, because people probably arent driving between those two places as else theyd be demanding you built a direct road instead.

consequently the infra doesnt move the modal needle at all, and all the motorists then complain what a waste of money it was and why didnt they spend the money on a bypass instead.

There is a bit locally where the shared path stops and cyclist have to go onto the road

but they do it with a split in the pavement where the left side just carries on but the right side slopes down onto the road and onto a section of road with a marked cycle lane

worked pretty well as you go from the shared path to the road with no stops or anything

nothing else like it - a lot of the others just stop and you are presumably expected to sort yourself out

 

[T4tomo]

The issue with this policy is whilst the kids will be willing and able to, the parents who wish to accompany their little darlings are probably too unfit or still in the PJ's and slippers at the appointed hour.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

The issue with this policy is whilst the kids will be willing and able to, the parents who wish to accompany their little darlings are probably too unfit or still in the PJ's and slippers at the appointed hour.

I did always find it weird at my daughter's school when some parents would pick their kids up in a dressing gown and slippers
and with curlers in

and with full make up

(before anyone says - it was just the women!!!)


the grand kids school must be posher - that never happens
or maybe times have changed!!!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I did always find it weird at my daughter's school when some parents would pick their kids up in a dressing gown and slippers
and with curlers in

and with full make up

(before anyone says - it was just the women!!!)


the grand kids school must be posher - that never happens
or maybe times have changed!!!

It's a relatively recent trend amongst certain demographics.

Personally, I find it beyond belief. But then, I am old, bigoted and my opinions have little import in the modern world. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Andy in Germany]

I still think the UK can be saved, we havent reached USA levels of you have to use a car to get anywhere because there is no public transport or provision for active travel, even though we green light new housing estates with no provision for active travel or bus routes/stops.

No, to be fair the UK isn't quite as bad, but having got used to the infrastructure that is fairly normal here, the UK it feels more akin to the US than to the rest of Europe, and I felt slightly trapped in York, it seemed that you needed a car to go just about anywhere, even fairly close to the edge of the city, and walking/cycling options were fairly constrained away from the tourist area.

...surely if the idea is to replace car journeys, you model your cycleways to mirror the kinds of journeys people take in their cars, you dont join up two random places on a map because it might look nicer, because people probably arent driving between those two places as else theyd be demanding you built a direct road instead.

consequently the infra doesnt move the modal needle at all, and all the motorists then complain what a waste of money it was and why didnt they spend the money on a bypass instead.

This is the main issue. People, that is most people who aren't cycling nerds, will choose the most convenient option. As long as that seems to be the car, and as long as people think they can afford driving, we won't see a modal shift.

(Un)fortunately, it's not possible to improve infrastructure for pedestrians, cars, et c, to the level required for a modal shift without reallocating space in a city, because currently cars take up so much of it. The anger of the entitled motorist, forced to take a slightly longer journey or park more than ten metres from the school gate, is terrifying to politicians.

On the other hand, wherever cities have had the courage to remove cars from the centre, , or make it less convenient to drive, they all discovered that when you do this, the city becomes far more pleasant for everyone else.

 

[Drago]

Theyll choose the laziest option, not the most convenient.

Its more convenient to cycle for 10 minutes than sit in a traffic jam for 30, yet the bulk would still choose the latter.

 

[mustang1]

Well, this won't work for me.

I get my big ass Audi Q8 (soon to be replaced by BMW X9), mobile phone in hand, the other mobile phone hooked up to the Bluetooth, big ass car, big ass wheels, phat tyres. I parked up in front of someone's driveway and block their entrance before they get annoyed and want me to move so I go and park on the grass verge which says "no parking on grass" but to the heck with that. And what are those two yellow lines I see painted around the place? I think it means "yo bro, you can definitely park here, but you might need to use that button on your car that makes all the indicators flash at the same time - some people call them hazard flashers but they just look nice with all the lights flashing about).

Once I'm ready to roll, I go straight into a three-point turn and car drivers around me honk their horns, a sign of encouragement and a show of force. Unfortunately I get stuck in a bunch of traffic so I try overtaking everyone and while I'm in the lane of opposing traffic, I get honked at again, probably more signs of encouragement, and then the traffic gets a lot worse and no one can get anywhere.

It's very frustrating to be honest with you, a 2 minute car drive to the school takes frigging half an hour and that's just one way, I could totally walk that in 5 minutes even while walking slowly, instead it turns into a 1 hour plus return trip. I don't know why all these people drive, so really, I'm in favour of getting those 60pc kids walking to school - at least I'll have a decent parking space and hopefully it will be done before my X9 or X11 comes out for sale. Though I have got my eyes on an extended wheelbase range rover, they're very safe and have airbags all over the place for me.

I honestly cannot stand some of these people in their cars, why don't they just stay at home??? And how dare they have a car bigger than mine!

 

[Drago]

It would be a start if the government were to ban all references to the "school run" in car advertising or promotional material.

Edit. No sooner did I type that when their was an ad on the radio for (I think, Jaguar - I wasnt paying much attention at first) extolling the virtues of their products for the school run!

Its obscene that manufacturers are permitted to promote their product for such a societally harmful activity. After all, you dont see ads in Country Life promoting Beretta shotguns as suitable for armed robberies...

 

[Gillstay]

Local council just doubled the number of footpath inspectors from 2 to 4. So things are occurring.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Local council just doubled the number of footpath inspectors from 2 to 4. So things are occurring.

Durn commies.

 

[Hicky]

Update from south Rochdale....our village(Castleton) had a cycle lane built a year or so ago against the wishes of the loud people on the local fb pages, the reality is the large majority didn't bother their ass to vote. My 5yo daughters school is located at the other end of the village so we use the lane heavily when it isn't(always) blocked with a vehicle, we're then forced onto the footpath. In school now we have better weather the bike shed is constantly rammed with bikes and parents riding in with their little darlings unless age permits the child to come in unaccompanied.
The vast majority of parent's who are riding are Polish and a few English, the kids riding alone from what I see overwhelmingly are white lads(the same type you'd see kicking a ball about or pulling wheelies anywhere, ie street urchins). The demographic of the school is very mixed.
The school is very proactive and has bikeability type schemes coming in for the kids and has twice in this school year a bike mech come in, the kids can bring their bikes in for a once over and basic issues sorted for free.
Cycling as an alternative will not take off unless it becomes ingrained into the kids as such or parent's are on board sadly.

 

[Electric_Andy]

some parents would pick their kids up in a dressing gown and slippers
and with curlers in

I guess it depends on which area you live in. I've seen very little of this in both deprived and affluent school areas. I can see both sides; in some areas it's very dangerous for kids to walk to school unaided (up until a certain age). BUt that's largely to do with a lack of road education. Perhaps this approach needs to be coupled with mandatory pedestrian proficiency courses? Where I've seen dangerous near misses, it's a combination of drivers going too fast AND kids walking out into the road when it's perhaps not wise to. Not victim blaming, but there's little you can do about carp drivers, they will always be impatient and distracted, but kids need to know that there are better times and places to try to cross a road. Something about "it's better to yield and stay alive, than to be right but dead"

 

[Drago]

I guess it depends on which area you live in. I've seen very little of this in both deprived and affluent school areas.

I've seen a lot of it over 35 years of walking kids to school.

Adding to the traffic by driving kids 400 metres dosnt solve a safety problem - it simply moves it along for someone else to endure.

Let's be brutally honest. In the vast majority of cases it's done because parents are lazy. The safety excuse is a sop - the kids would be equally safe if the parent accompanied them on foot.

 

[Electric_Andy]

the kids would be equally safe if the parent accompanied them on foot.

I agree, but the time aspect is not favourable to those who work. I used to drop my son off in the car sometimes and then go straight off to work. If I walked him in, and walked back, I'd arrive at work at least 40 minutes late. Unless we walked him in early and paid for breakfast club, which is another issue

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I agree, but the time aspect is not favourable to those who work. I used to drop my son off in the car sometimes and then go straight off to work. If I walked him in, and walked back, I'd arrive at work at least 40 minutes late. Unless we walked him in early and paid for breakfast club, which is another issue

When my last school started a free breakfast club this was one of the main reasons

It allowed a lot of parents to work that were having problems finding a job before

Which, in a very deprived area, makes a huge difference to the child in many ways