School Run Traffic.....any 'pattern' to it ?

[Katherine]

Dave, listen to the local traffic reports. If there big problems anywhere else in the Greater Manchester area, it doesn't take long for it to affect everywhere else as it is all connected.

From my experience, Tuesdays are usually the worst and Mondays are the best.
It's always much worse when it's wet.

Other than that, no pattern at all!

 

[mjr]

I did not ask why the roads are so busy............please read my OP.

I did. Please explain what "that" was in "How does that work?" then if it wasn't the school rush.

 

[mjr]

Fully agree with your thinking..................my query was, why SO different at exactly the same time 3 days apart. @wormo may have put his finger on it as we have a bridge over the Manchester ship canal which Peel Holdings (with their power) can close at any time......up to 6 times per day as I understand/

That might contribute to it, but it seems just as likely to be chaotic behaviour of an overloaded network, where tiny differences in initial conditions (like the exact departure times of participants) results in large differences in outcomes. Road traffic is one of the examples given on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Theory !

You can see examples of chaotic behaviour in things as simple as a two-section pendulum:

 

[Dave7]

I did. Please explain what "that" was in "How does that work?" then if it wasn't the school rush.

Again, I did not ask why roads are so busy, I merely queried how the same journey..........starting at exactly the same time.........could take 15 minutes one day and 45 minutes 2 days later. I didn't ask for a lecture on why I should buy a tagalong while my granddaughter is with me for 2 weeks.
Sorry if it seems like a rant but I don't think your comment was helpful.

 

[NickNick]

If you've got a smart phone try using Waze, my mum uses it when she can't take the train from London to Birmingham and it can shave an hour or more off the commute during bad traffic. It uses the data from everyone using it to identify traffic hot spots in advance and reroutes the journey via the least congested route possible. I think a lot of the mini cab drivers in London use it and it seems really effective and does its little bit to reduce emissions by avoiding stop starting as much as possible.

 

[mjr]

Again, I did not ask why roads are so busy, I merely queried how the same journey..........starting at exactly the same time.........could take 15 minutes one day and 45 minutes 2 days later. I didn't ask for a lecture on why I should buy a tagalong while my granddaughter is with me for 2 weeks.
Sorry if it seems like a rant but I don't think your comment was helpful.

I don't think your question was helpful, but the answer is it's a chaotic system because the roads are overloaded with unnecessary school run traffic.

And I never even said buy a tagalong, much less lecture about it, but if you'd like a lecture: it's this sort of blinkered refusal to face the obvious and tackle the mythical "right to drive" the school run (so-called by a previous poster) which means it now takes five minutes to cross the main road through my village between 3 and 4pm. I assume the name "school run" is now ironic, as people running it are even rarer than the dozen or so who cycle.

 

[gavgav]

I have what should be a 10 minute drive to work, but there is an optimum time to do it. Anything between 08:10 and 08:40 is hell, but either side of that and it’s much better.

I pass 2 secondary schools on the way

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Parents driving kids to school will not leave at exactly the same time each day. Sandwiches get forgotten, a kid wants the toilet, they may have to wait to get out the end of their road. The roads are overloaded with unnecessary traffic on short journeys. Another reason it varies so much. They do not think it takes all that long as they only think of the distance so are not so strict on when they set off. So the number of drivers trying to use the same bit of road at the same time as you can vary quite significantly.

Your average speed of 6mph and at best 15mph does show the futility of what is happening across the country these days.

 

[summerdays]

One of the reasons is that children are simply not allowed to go to school, or more correctly, leave school, unless picked up by a specifc adult. This pretty much forces said adult to drive in order to pick up their kid. When I was little the bell went and off we went, whether straight home or to the park or whatever. This must be a huge burden for parents these days, doubly so for working mothers. It's almost a kind of sexist handmaiden's tale policy to prevent women working.

That wasn't true 10 years ago. Yes they wouldn't let them go off with a stranger, but you could ring the school and say someone such as their auntie was going to pick them up, and certainly there was no problems going off with another parent. And in the last couple of years in Primary I think I signed something to say they could go home from after school clubs on their own, and they definitely could straight after school.

Even these days I see unaccompanied primary school children making their way to school.

 

[Freds Dad]

Could there have a been a local traffic incident on the days it took longer and people have diverted to your route hence the hold up?

I always find that if I leave at 7.25 instead of 7.30 my journey to work can be shorter by up to 15 minutes.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

One of the reasons is that children are simply not allowed to go to school, or more correctly, leave school, unless picked up by a specifc adult.

Does that really happen? Do they hold back each child until the correct adult comes along?

 

[Profpointy]

Does that really happen? Do they hold back each child until the correct adult comes along?

Yep, according to parents I know. It does indeed sound nuts. Apparently a letter saying little johnny can go home by himself won't do. I dare say it only applies in nice middle class schools where parents accept this shoot.

 

[Julia9054]

Yep, according to parents I know. It does indeed sound nuts. Apparently a letter saying little johnny can go home by himself won't do. I dare say it only applies in nice middle class schools where parents accept this shoot.

It's not nuts at all. What if the school released a child into the care of an adult who is not supposed to have contact with them. Older primary school children are allowed to walk home by themselves.

 

[Stephenite]

I'm the one who delivers the kids of a morning. One to school and one to nursery. Then off to work i go (heigh ho, ).

I take my bike with me when dropping off the kids, then hop on it to get to work. It takes about the same amount of time walking and biking as it does driving. Some times a lot less. I don't cycle every day 'cos sometimes i'm knackered and, sometimes, i've got other things to do like shopping, delivering the kids to their afterschool activities, lots of things. But, most weeks, I walk/cycle three times out of the five.

Now @Dave7 you are doing this for two weeks only. I see you don't like being "preached to" but, can't you make the effort?

 

[Profpointy]

It's not nuts at all. What if the school released a child into the care of an adult who is not supposed to have contact with them. Older primary school children are allowed to walk home by themselves.

And what if the child is out playing all weekend with their pala. Even for well paid people it's a major nuisance, I dare say for the poorly paid single mother it's yet another load of buggerment that'll tip someone into real poverty