neds - get off the pavement!

[bauldbairn]

Here's the great irony: the transport museum is being built on the riverside opposite Govan, literally within a stone's throw () but how can a parent on benefits even get the kids there?

I bet your glad you got all that off your chest WeeE.

Well done - with the kids, by the way.

Aye! Glasgow's a city of massive contrasts - from the richest to the poorest, from the most squalid to the most affluent.

Can't help thinking sometimes, that the massive amounts of money spent in and around Glasgow couldn't somehow be better spent - elsewhere in the city.

 

[WeeE]

I bet your glad you got all that off your chest WeeE.

Well done - with the kids, by the way.

Aye! Glasgow's a city of massive contrasts - from the richest to the poorest, from the most squalid to the most affluent.

Can't help thinking sometimes, that the massive amounts of money spent in and around Glasgow couldn't somehow be better spent - elsewhere in the city.

Well, yeah, a bit of a massive vent.

What frustrates me is that the affluent blame the squalor all on the poor, without seeing that they demands they themselves make (for motorways, for parking, for segregated business/industrial areas) directly impact on the least affluent - the way the shadow of a motorway, for example, creates partitioned zones inimical to social & economic life. It instantly drives down the environmental & social quality of a big area on either side, and ruins the commercial value of property (business & housing). And when its revenue-raising value goes down, the local-authority sees it as of no value, and happily cranks up the cycle of degradation.

 

[magnatom]

I know where you are coming from WeeE, and motorways etc certainly can annex areas. However, there are also many examples of poorer areas sitting right next to affluent areas in Glasgow, where all that separates them is a road or a field etc. I think it is the underlying reasons behind the deprivation need addressing more so than the geographical restrictions.

 

[Coco]

Cyclechat: A friendly place for everyone with an interest in Social Geography


Anyway back to the OP, I think the crux of the debate was how do children learn to cycle safely. My son got compulsory cycle training last year in Primary school, but I'm not sure if Glasgow are doing it.

Interesting wee report that looks at Scottish local authorities in terms of cycling:

In 2001, research for the (then) Scottish Executive showed that in the region of 10% of the
eligible school population were completing on-road cycle training and a further 20%
completing training off-road (not to the current National Standard), with 85% of schools being
offered training.
There is currently limited data in this area but recent information collated by Road Safety
Scotland shows a slight increase in the levels of on-road delivery and an overall increase in
the levels of delivery. However, almost a third of local authorities still provide no on-road​

delivery and only 1 local authority has it as the principal option

 

[WeeE]

I know where you are coming from WeeE, and motorways etc certainly can annex areas. However, there are also many examples of poorer areas sitting right next to affluent areas in Glasgow, where all that separates them is a road or a field etc. I think it is the underlying reasons behind the deprivation need addressing more so than the geographical restrictions.

Agree, Magnatom - what I'm saying is that it's not just the attitudes of those who are poor that need addressing, but the attitudes of those who keep on doing stuff that exacerbates poverty - because they don't imagine that what they do is part of the picture.

People who are OK financially often speak and think as if poverty is a phenomenon that comes out of nowhere and is not connected with their own standard of life. People in affluent areas (disproportionately including our elected & unelected governors) are raised & educated to think of themselves as just horrified bystanders, and to be unaware that their own activities and their own lobbying demands do act directly on other areas - even those next door to their own.

 

[WeeE]

It seems as though training for kids is something that individual shcools and individual authorities have a sort of push on for a year or two, then forget about. It never seems to become part of education. It's such a basic life skill - how traffic works and how to use roads - you'd think it would be an integral part of the curriculum.

As for cycle traffic training for adults in Scotland - random, sparse & sporadic at best.

 

[Coco]

My experience differs from yours. My son has been getting road skill education throughout his primary years. And I seem to recall something about Tufty when I was at school.