School Run Cyclists

[summerdays]

Those of you who do the school run by bike, (well I suppose anyone doing the school run), I would be interested to know how many other parents cycle?

I've been trying to work it out at my youngest child's primary school (size about 350 pupils in a city), and I think its somewhere between 10 to 20 (so I'm ticking 16). Certainly on any one morning I think its at least 8-10. It made me wonder whether this is typical or not.

 

[Willow]

Can I count me - I don't cycle with DS2 to school but when he cycles it means I can cycle to my school! Trumpet lesson tomorrow though so have to take car - boo hoo.

 

[domtyler]

Can I count me - I don't cycle with DS2 to school but when he cycles it means I can cycle to my school! Trumpet lesson tomorrow though so have to take car - boo hoo.

Why do you need to drive to trumpet lessons? Are they a long way from your house?

 

[Willow]

Why do you need to drive to trumpet lessons? Are they a long way from your house?

He can't carry trumpet and school bag on his back and a rack is not considered cool. He is 10 and just started cycling to school having passed cp in summer.

 

[Willow]

I cycle most days with the kids, there are only 4 or 5 of us who regularly cycle. I teach "cycle-proficiency" in our local primary and middle school, 2 of the other regular cycling parents are 2 of the other 3 instructors

The reason most of the other parents give for not cycling is that there are too many cars and it's dangerous, then they bloody drive We have seriously toyed with the idea of doing a course aimed at the parents, especially as on the nice summer days when more do it and they are often seen riding 50m ahead of their kids and shouting "are you still there?" as they disappear around the corner If anyone has any experience of delivering a course aimed at parents, I would be really interested to know how it was recieved, one of my friends is willing to bet that only mums would turn up, and no dads would take it up at all as they already know all there is to know about riding a bike on the roads

I don't but the person controlling the cp courses in Surrey county council is Debbie Reid and she may know of something

 

[summerdays]

I cycle most days with the kids, there are only 4 or 5 of us who regularly cycle. I teach "cycle-proficiency" in our local primary and middle school, 2 of the other regular cycling parents are 2 of the other 3 instructors

The reason most of the other parents give for not cycling is that there are too many cars and it's dangerous, then they bloody drive We have seriously toyed with the idea of doing a course aimed at the parents, especially as on the nice summer days when more do it and they are often seen riding 50m ahead of their kids and shouting "are you still there?" as they disappear around the corner If anyone has any experience of delivering a course aimed at parents, I would be really interested to know how it was recieved, one of my friends is willing to bet that only mums would turn up, and no dads would take it up at all as they already know all there is to know about riding a bike on the roads

I knew I read about it somewhere - I've just looked it up and it was in the last Safe Routes to School magazine:
"3 schools in NI have awarded parents Bikeability Level 1 and 2 certificates for passing their own training."

"During its consultations Killyleagh's working group found that some parents wanted on-road cycle training too, to make them better cyclists, but also so that they could cycle with their children to school"

(Interestingly the photo that accompanies the article shows 6 women so you could be right).

Link to the Routes 2 Action newsletter (no 16) http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.asp?sID=1208345143276

And I'm sure I've read about it somewhere else too.

 

[summerdays]

I'm not meaning whether the child is cycling to school - we certainly can have more than 16 of those though only about 10 today in the rain, I was just noting how many adults are pushing bikes in the playground.

A couple of years ago I only ever saw about me and one other bike in the playground - I'm just hoping that seeing adults with bikes and varying levels of cycle gear will help to make cycling seem a more normal activity for these kids (and the other adults - though some of those would try and get their cars in the playground if they could).

 

[velocidad]

as far as i'm aware there's only me that regularly uses the bike for the school run at velocison's primary. there are two others that use bikes sometimes. it is only one mile to school now (used to be 6, but he moved schools). unbelievably in that 1 mile trip i pass quite a few people putting their kids in the car to come to same school one of them that regularly takes their kid in the car would only need to walk/bike 0.6 miles the long way and just 0.3 miles taking the short cut. the car park is only small, so it becomes an every man for himself situation. after dropping velocison off, i'm the one getting dirty looks as i try to negotiate my way arround all the parked cars

cheers, velocidad.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

as far as i'm aware there's only me that regularly uses the bike for the school run at velocison's primary.

Don't know why, but that made me chuckle. Had to look at your username to influence pronunciation though. .

Maybe I'll have to start referring to mine as Sh4rkyMiss1 and SharkyMiss2 with Sh4rkyMissus/Sh4rkyLass being the Wife.

 

[velocidad]

Don't know why, but that made me chuckle. Had to look at your username to influence pronunciation though. .

Maybe I'll have to start referring to mine as Sh4rkyMiss1 and SharkyMiss2 with Sh4rkyMissus/Sh4rkyLass being the Wife.

velocidad, velocimum, and velocison all riding around happily on our velocipedes.......we really are that cute

cheers, velocidad.

 

[wafflycat]

Wafflycat Minor is now well past the age of being accompanied by parents to school, what with him reaching the tender age of 20 later this month.

But when he was younger, he did cycle to school. He was a latecomer to cycling. When he first started, either MrW or I would accompany him sur velo and use the occasion to do a bit of road sense training (pretty much what is covered in Cyclecraft). Once we were reasoably confident he wasn't likely to be an idiot, we let him cycle unaccompanied. I can remember the first time he cycled the 11-mile round trip alone... I may start biting my fingernails again. I spent the entire day on the loo, too through worry But you can't wrap the offspring in cottonwool no matter how much you want to - it's not good for them to be overprotected. Hell on maternal nerves though! By the time he got to A-levels, he was cycling a 26-mile round trip five days a week, whatever the weather pretty much. The only times he got a lift (by then) were exam days, if he was under the weather or if the real weather was *horrendous*. Normal rain/wind did not count as horrendous. On snowy/icy days he used my recumbent trike for better grip on the roads

 

[alecstilleyedye]

if dd gets into the school we want her to next year, you can count us in.

 

[neslon]

They walk to school, while I bike to work. But on Sunday, we cycle to rugby training and laugh at all the other parents struggling to fit their ginormous 4x4 things into the carpark, leaving the 2 wheel drive Volvos to slither around on the grass. Then the kids do a warm up

 

[hackbike 6]

Don't think this applies to me.

 

[mr_cellophane]

Infant/Junior school was only round the corner so anything other than walking would have been a bit pointless.
I did cycle past on my own one afternoon. It was terrible. Kids walking into the road without looking, parents stopping their cars in the middle of the road to chat to other parents.
I am glad I don't live in the same road as the school as parents just park across people drives and generally block everything.