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

[vickster]

I used to play out unsupervised.

Before the age of 10 I had played with bullets, a Webley pistol, and a box of shotgun cartridges. Parents and schools today don't know the real meaning of the word 'risk'.

I wonder if your parents were trying to tell you something? Did they explain how to play Russian Roulette too?

 

[Drago]

Couldn't regular closer of roads for kids to play, street parties... play its part in addressing the culture of bone idle laziness and unnecessary care use, by reclaiming the roads from road users? If it became a regular occurrence on a large enough scale I think it could.

Not while those who close their own streets are happy to make unnecessary car journeys down other peoples streets.

I wonder if your parents were trying to tell you something? Did they explain how to play Russian Roulette too?

Heh heh. Funnily enough, they never knew, although most of the street knew when we put bullets in the vice in my Dads shed and let them off with a hammer. I was born less than a quarter of a century after the war and weapons and ammo were still fairly common, although they did seem to deplete going into the seventies (probably because we'd let them all off! )

 

[summerdays]

Couldn't regular closer of roads for kids to play, street parties... play its part in addressing the culture of bone idle laziness and unnecessary care use, by reclaiming the roads from road users? If it became a regular occurrence on a large enough scale I think it could.

Playing Out is done regularly in many streets, and I even saw her talking about it on Breakfast News (I think), spreading to other cities and towns. It does need people to want it to happen and to act on it. One of my friends is one of the "supervisors" or whatever they call them, in her street, where her role is to put out the cones blocking the road, and talk to any motorists who want to drive down the street whilst it's in place. I don't know exactly. Her kids are grown up but she still helps out.

 

[Electric_Andy]

There is clear pattern round here - a sizeable percentage drive their kids to school when the same journey would be less than 10 mins to walk.

This old chestnut again. I agree that SOME people are lazy and use the car when they could in fact walk. But many parents are caught in the work trap. There isn't time to walk back from school to then use the car or bus/bike to get to work by 09:00, so using the car is the only option. It's very easy to criticise others, but spare a thought for those of us who have to work and send our kids to school at the same time. I generalise a lot myself, but we all need to stop and put ourselves in others' shoes sometimes.

 

[classic33]

Neighbour drives just under three quarters of a mile in total to drop two kids off. The school is 90 yards from the house on foot.

There's seldom a place to park, so most end up stopping in the road to let the kids out. They can't use the pavements as they've been used for parking on.

 

[Dave7]

Neighbour drives just under three quarters of a mile in total to drop two kids off. The school is 90 yards from the house on foot.

There's seldom a place to park, so most end up stopping in the road to let the kids out. They can't use the pavements as they've been used for parking on.

Dropped granddaughter off last Friday. School is on a narrow road so I chose a place with no other cars. Further down this narrow road has a sharp bend........some woman stops ON THE BEND, gets out, unloads the kids while blocking the whole road. That is the sort of things that encourages people to condemn everyone on the school run. Another 10 yards and it would have left the road clear.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I used to play out unsupervised.

Before the age of 10 I had played with bullets, a Webley pistol, and a box of shotgun cartridges. Parents and schools today don't know the real meaning of the word 'risk'.

Aged 8, (about 2 years after the civil war ended in the country in Africa I lived my first half of my life) I was dragged along every weekend to the social club/bar set on the shores of a freshwater lake. The so called adults just sat around drinking all day. It was hellishly boring for kids, but the setting amongst the trees and granite boulders was stunning and a real adventure ground for exploring

One weekend, I found a heavy duty round in the mud on the foreshore. Serious result. Treasure. Eye candy. I rinsed it off in the water and apart from being a bit corroded, the large bullet was a beauty. Delighted with my find, I rushed up the hill and into the bar to show the adults my find. I did just that....

...and for some reason, unbeknown to me at the time, 20 to 30 adults screamed and hit the deck simultaneously.

Think I got grounded and wasn’t allowed to play outside for a while.

 

[subaqua]

I don't have kids myself, so only going by what parents tell me; actual real people, not out of the paper just to make the point. On a related, albeit different point, I recall a work colleague, originally from Coatia commenting that she was suprised that when the kids went to play in the park one of the parents would take it in turns to supervise. She duly took her turn accepting a "do as the Romans do" approach. Her kids were 11. I was frankly astonished. From maybe 8 or a good bulit before I'd be going out to play all day on weekends. I'd get "where are you going" or "you mustn't go and play in such and such" but I wasn't supervised. Just to be clear I was given very clear boundaries on what was or wasn't allowed - but "out to play" was fine. In fact if I was in too much "you should go out to play" was the response if I was considered to be moping indoors.

We were told not to play in the old clay pits , or in the quarry . Or on the railway . Or at the brickworks , or go swimming in the pools that had filled with water from old clay pits

Guess where we played ... and swam.


And yes out from 8am in the summer in for lunch then out again , back for tea and out again till dusk .

I learned how to climb on them quarry faces , how to swim in the brick pools. And what cold water immersion shock was before it got called that .

 

[User482]

Playing Out is done regularly in many streets, and I even saw her talking about it on Breakfast News (I think), spreading to other cities and towns. It does need people to want it to happen and to act on it. One of my friends is one of the "supervisors" or whatever they call them, in her street, where her role is to put out the cones blocking the road, and talk to any motorists who want to drive down the street whilst it's in place. I don't know exactly. Her kids are grown up but she still helps out.

We organized for our street and do it once a month. Drivers can still get access but they get to drive behind me while I walk very slowly. We've found that beyond the obvious - kids playing out - it's been a nice way of meeting and socialising with neighbours. During the summer, the older residents would all sit out on their deck chairs.

 

[mjr]

This old chestnut again. I agree that SOME people are lazy and use the car when they could in fact walk. But many parents are caught in the work trap. There isn't time to walk back from school to then use the car or bus/bike to get to work by 09:00, so using the car is the only option.

Maybe not for you, but let's not overgeneralise that. At least some of them could get to school and back in the same time or less than it takes to be part of the school drop-off jam twice: once as they queue to get to the drop-off and once as they queue to leave the school area. And some more could probably successfully request flexible working to accommodate some school runs, but few seem to. And then you have non-working parents or relatives doing some drop-offs, but most of them seem to be carring, too.

I know some of the reduction in school holidays will be parents taking time off work, but I do wonder how much of the morning rush hour is cars only going to school and back, not onwards - as the evening peak now lasts about 3 hours, I suspect it could be as much as a third.